Onigakure
by nemiziz
Summary: They believed it to be just a myth, a legend created by their ancestors to amuse their children. There truly is no such thing as a village inhabited by demons. Right? I do not own Naruto, however, all original characters are mine. Re-edited!
1. Prologue

**Onigakure**

A/n: This is my first shot at a fanfic in my life, so feed back and advice would be greatly appreciated. Flames ARE accepted. This first chapter is just the prologue, introducing my characters and sort of giving you a peek into the coming story. The disclaimer is in the summary, so don't try to sue me.

** Prologue**

It was an average day within Konohagakure. Children playing in the streets, people manning there shops, and ninja moving about the village across the rooftops. Even the weather seemed perfect: a warm, sunny summer day, neither too humid nor too dry. All seemed just as it did nearly every other day in the peaceful village. All but one small detail, something everyone failed to notice. The detail came in the form of three silhouettes standing atop the hokage monument, looking down upon Konoha. From the size and shapes of there bodies, there were two males and one female.

On the right side a boy, probably 14 judging by his size, stood with arms crossed firmly across his chest, looking calmly down at the scene below him with two different colored eyes: one was a bright flame red, while the other was a deep ocean blue. He wore a dark blue, long-sleeved shirt with typical black ninja pants, both with red flame patters at the end of the sleeve and legs, and had black boots on his feet. He had wild, untamed orange-red red hair that seemed to mimic fire, dancing to and fro in the wind and glowing in the light of the sun.

To the left was someone completely opposite in appearance to him. It was a girl, also looking to be 14, who stood slightly shorter than her male companion. She wore dark red pants and had sandaled feet. A tiger pattern sleeveless shirt covered her upper body, and on her head sat a cap with what appeared to be cat ears sticking from the top. She did not stand, but rather bounced from foot to foot, looking down at this foreign place with child like enthusiasm in her golden eyes.

In between them was the tallest (and strangest) of the three, standing a head above the boy, even with his slumped posture. Upon his upper body rested a ragged black trench coat, torn and filled with holes, though those above knee height had been half-hazardly stitched together. It was left open, revealing white bandages that covered him from head to toe, showing no holes even for his eyes and mouth. To cover his legs and feet, he wore what appeared to be ragged dress pants and mud splattered boots. One of the most peculiar things about him, however, was the black top hat that sat upon his head. Unlike the rest of his attire, this appeared clean and well taken care of. It was impossible to tell how old he truly was, as all his features were hidden.

The three figures stood quietly for several moments before, finally, the girl broke the silence. "Well," she began in a voice filled with barely contained energy, "what do you think?" The boy looked towards his female companion before turning his attention back to the village. "Doesn't seem like much, really. Too calm, too peaceful. Really doesn't seem like a place that could go to war. Don't even know why were even bothering with it honestly," he said in a bored fashion. The girl simply huffed. "Your no fun Sanshouuo."

The boy, now known as Sanshouuo, looked bemusedly at his companion. "And why is that Neko?" Neko shrugged. "Because, you take everything too seriously. So what if it is a little quite here? Life doesn't always have to be about fighting." She smiled. "Who knows? We might have a lot of fun here, without all the violence of our own village!" After saying this, her smile slowly fell, and she cautiously looked up at the figure beside her, who had not even twitched since the conversation began. "What…. What do you think Hitokage?" she said after a moment's hesitation. Hitokage snapped his head in her direction, causing her o flinch. After several moments, he spoke. "What does it matter what a mere _servant_ thinks?" His companions shivered. The voice was cold and dead sounding, like a winter gust blowing through a forest of dead trees. Neko hesitantly spoke up "R…right. Well… I suppose we should be going now… right?" Sanshouuo nodded and Hitokage replied with a simple "As you wish." Now his voice simply sounded dead, losing the air of coldness it previously had. Neko nodded in confirmation, then all three vanished, disappearing instantaneously from view.

It was an average day in Konohagakarue. Children played in the streets, people manned their shops, and ninja moved about the village. Everything was perfect, except one small detail. Three patches of grass atop the hokage monument stood out from their surrounding. To the right, the grass seemed to have grown more than the surrounding vegetation. Too the left, new plants had begun to sprout. And in-between, was a patch of grass as dead and lifeless as the man who had stood there.

A/N: All right, that's all for now. If people review and give me good feedback, I'll try to update, but it may take me a while to get inspiration for the rest of the story. Next time, I'll try and make the chapter longer. Again, please R&R. Bye!


	2. Meetings

**Onigakure**

**A/n: I forgot to mention this in the prologue, but this story begins right before the chunin exam. The reason for this is because I couldn't think of any other reason for ninja from a different country to come into Konoha. Yet ANOTHER thing I forgot to say (it was an off day) is that Naruto will play a large roll in this story later on in the story. I think. Anyway, other than that, enjoy the story!**

**Speech**

"Yo": speaking

'Hola': thinking

** Ch. 1: Meetings**

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" A scream rang throughout Konoha. Its source was a certain orange-clad demon container and his three young charges as they ran from a creature that caused fear in even the greatest of men. Something horrible, a being no man, god, or machine could ever hope to stop: a pissed off pre-teen girl by the name of Sakura. The moment was reminiscent of an old saying: 'Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned,' but instead of a woman, it was a hormonally charged pre-teen, and her anger went beyond scorn. Her looks had been insulted. As the four poor souls ran, they prayed to kami above, and he in turn looked down upon them. He shook his head and sighed: he wasn't touching that problem with a fifteen-foot pole.

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On their path of retreat, the Konohamaru Corps, and their "fearless" leader ran past Sasuke, on his way home from his training session. He was calmly walking along, minding his own business when he heard a scream coming from his right. As he turned to look, he caught a glance at a screaming orange blur, followed closely by an equally loud, roaring pink blur. As Sasuke watched this scene, his stunned mind slowly began working again. "Wait…." He thought, "Orange plus screaming in fear equals Naruto. Pink plus roaring in anger equals Sakura. Angry Sakura plus catching scared Naruto equals… oh shit." He quickly took off in the direction in which the screaming as coming from. He didn't particularly LIKE Naruto, but he REALLY didn't like the idea of explaining to Kakashi-sensei why they needed another team-mate, and why the previous third member had suddenly become a red smear on the pavement.

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The Grand Chase of Konoha, as it would come to be known in later years, raged on for several minutes in much the same fashion: Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon would run into alleys and around corners in an attempt to loose Sakura, and she in turn would thwart all their attempts, keeping pace with her four fleeing victims no matter what tricks they deployed. However, The Grand Chase, like all things, had to come to an end at some time. Konohamaru, in his blind panic, ran straight into a person standing in his path.

"Ouch…" mumbled Konohamaru from his position in the ground. When he looked up to identify just what had stopped him in his run to safety, he was surprised. Before him stood a tall figure dressed in a full body black jump suit, with a black and white circle in the middle of his chest. Upon his skull was a headdress with two points sticking up, and a forehead protector with an hourglass set in the middle. On his back was a bundle wrapped in bandages with what looked like hair sticking from the top. His black body suit and headdress gave the impression of a large, wingless bat. It was at about this time that Konohamaru noticed something strange. It began as a nagging feeling before becoming evolving into an all-consuming itch. If only he could decide what it was… Then it hit him. On the figures face was a layer of what looked like… 'Is that _makeup_?' he exclaimed mentally.

After getting over his shock, he turned to look at his obstacles companion. Only one thing came to his young mind: 'Whoa… she's hot.' "She" was a tall girl, with the same headband as the boy, though it was hung around her neck. On her body was a tan, dress-like thing, which hung off her shoulders and went down to about mid-thigh. Under this was a layer of fishnet that apparently covered everything under her dress and extended sown her arms. However, it ended just above her knee on one leg, while the other leg had fishnet only from her ankle to below the knee. Her hair was pulled into four ponytails, all sticking out at an angle from the back of her head. She, like the boy, had a large object on her back, though this appeared to be an oversized fan.

Just as Konohamaru finished these thoughts, the bat-like boy bent over and picked him up by the collar of his shirt and scarf. "KONOHAMARU!" yelled Naruto and the remaining members of Konohamaru Corps. "Hey!" yelled Naruto, "You, in the suit! Let him go now and I'll go easy on you!" At this, Sakura grabbed him in a headlock, effectively shutting him up and preventing him from making any more comments. Or breathing. "You're starting to annoy me," batboy spoke for the first time. "First off," he spoke, "I'm allergic to 'shrimp'. Second of all, you're disrespecting your elders! You make me want to kill this kid!" At this, Naruto got angry. "YOU…" he started before being cut off. "So…" continued batboy as if he hadn't heard him, "I'll just finish with this tiny shrimp... and move on to the jumbo shrimp over there." After finishing up his speech, he lifted Konohamaru slightly and brought back his fist. Naruto charged forward…

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Throughout the entire confrontation, Sasuke had watched silently from a tree. He watched with a bored interest until he heard the words "Your starting to annoy me!" He heard the hostility in that voice. He quickly shifted into what he deemed an acceptably cool looking pose and waited intently for the perfect moment to make as dramatic and badass an appearance as physically possible. He ignored the comment about wanting to kill the kid. 'Too soon,' he told himself, 'It'll take away from the drama.' He didn't flinch when batboy brought back his fist. 'Not yet' he thought, 'If I can wait until just the last second, I can make it far more badass than that…' Then came the moment of truth. Batboy had started moving his fist towards the helpless boy, who could have been saved MUCH sooner, but had to just bear with the suffocation a bit longer than he should have. 'Perfect,' Sasuke mentally cheered, basking in the glory and awe he knew was coming. He drew back his arm, holding within it one of the rocks he had picked up below the tree, and then…

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Stopped. The fist. Naruto's charge. Sasuke's arm. Everything. No one moved. No one talked. They were in shock. Batboy, however, was stunned. He couldn't move. Couldn't breath. All he could do was stare at the figure in front of him, holding his fist. He ignored the boy crouching to his left holding a blood red katana to his throat. He paid no attention to the girl to his right, one hand on the top of the boy's head and the other holding a lightning shaped dagger to his neck. For in front of him stood a figure covered from head to toe in bandages. He wore a ragged black trench coat, and equally tattered pants and boots. On top off his head sat a clean black top hat. And in his hand, he held a scythe. A scythe made entirely out of a human skeleton, the legs and hips ripped off, the hands held against the chest in a praying position with the curved and viciously serrated black blade clenched tightly in-between them, and the skull left on, looking straight ahead. All he could do was stare, stare at the side of the bleached white skull. And as he stared, he noticed something. Something strange. He wasn't looking at the side of the skull anymore. He was looking into two pits of utter darkness, bottomless pools of ebony. He knew what they were, he just couldn't believe it. They were eye sockets. The skull had moved.

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For the second time that day, a scream rang throughout Konoha.

**A/n There we go, the second chapter of Onigakure. I decided to try and add a bit of comedy into the story this time, before ending on a scary note. Tried being a key word in that sentence. As it turns out, I didn't have to wait to get inspiration. I had this chapter done the day after I posted the first chapter. One review helped me do that folks! I'd like to give a big thank you to Girl at Heart, my first ever reviewer! Anyway, left a cliffy for later. I should have the next chapter ready soon after I post this chapter, though I had hoped for more reviews. Actually, I was going to wait a few days, but since I've already got it written I'll post it now. At 3:09 in the morning. :D Still, I posted the last chapter at 4:33, so it's not so bad. I'm an owl, fear me. **

**P.S. I know batboys name is Kankuro. Just wanted to say that so no one leaves a review telling me that. Bye!**


	3. Friend or Foe?

**Onigakure**

A/n: Well, here's the third chapter of Onigakure. Sorry it took so long to update, I was having a slight case of writers block. I have nothing else to say, so enjoy!

**Speech**

"Yo": speaking

'Hola': thinking

** Ch. 2: Friend or Foe?**

"There it is, the gate of Konoha," said Neko giddily as she, Hitokage and Sanshouuo walked sown the worn dirt road to the village. However, the three each carried different things, obviously their luggage. Neko had a pack strapped to her back and held a large suitcase in her right hand, struggling to keep it up. Sanshouuo sighed at her enthusiasm. "I don't see why we can't just get in the way we did yesterday," he stated. With him, he had but a pack on his back and a katana sheathed at his side. "Because," Neko began with a roll of her eyes, " that would be illegal, and we'd be attacked by their shinobi. And if _that_ happened, we wouldn't be able to get a good hotel." Again, Sanshouuo sighed, saying "Whatever," then mumbling, "I still don't see the problem." Now it was Neko's turn to sigh. Sometimes Sanshouuo just got on her nerves, and Hitokage… She turned her head slightly to look at the tall figure beside her, regarding him with a frown and a sad look in her golden eyes. Hitokage carried even less than Sanshouuo. While Sanshouuo had at least some sign of extra clothing and personal belonging, Hitokage had a small bag filled with rolls of bandages and a sewing kit. In the same hand, he also carried a large, thin case of some sort that gave no indication as to its contents. 'Oh well," she silently told herself, 'no time to think of that now.'

Indeed there wasn't. The trio had just reached the gates, and a guard was quickly approaching them. When a cry of 'Halt' reached their ears, the three stopped. Once the guard, a chunin, got close enough, he asked them in a dull voice, "Identification and purpose here in Konoha." They stood there a moment before Sanshouuo swiftly elbowed Neko in the ribs, and she released a quick 'oh'. With her left hand, she tried to reach into her right pocket, but her heavy suitcase nearly caused her to fall over in the process. She huffed before turning to Hitokage. "Could you hold this for me?" she asked. Hitokage turned his head to look at her (weather or not he could see her through the bandages is another question.) and, without a word, took the suitcase. Without the heavy luggage, Neko reached into her pocket and pulled out three pieces of paper. The guard, by this time tired of waiting, snatched them from her hands. "Purpose here?" he barked out. "Chunin exam," replied Sanshouuo. The guard nodded absent-mindedly as he read through the identification paper. He was just about to hand them back and pass the group through, before realizing he didn't know what nation they were from, as they wore no headband. He quickly looked to at the area of the paper that told what village they hailed from and froze.

'Wait,' he thought, 'this can't be right.' He glanced up to look at the three travelers who were either ignoring him (Hitokage), or glaring at him for the time he was taking (Neko and Sanshouuo). The guard narrowed his eyes. "All right, where are you from and what is your purpose here," he asked icily. "Hmmm, let's see," Sanshouuo said in a mocking voice. "I'm pretty sure we told you that were here for the chunin exam, and unless I'm mistaken, our village is printed on those convenient pieces of paper you hold in your hands. Or are you deaf and blind _as well_ as ugly?" At this, the guard went from narrowing his eyes to flat-out glaring. "Don't try and fool me," he spat out, "the village on this paper doesn't even exist!" "Uh, yes it does, dumbass. Were from it," said Sanshouuo as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Neko quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. "What my friend here means," she said in a sweet voice, " is that it _is_ a real village, but were just now… stepping out into the light." The guard scoffed "A real village huh? All right, I'll accept that. But tell me just _one_ thing." "And that is…?" asked Neko. "Why are you coming out now of all times, hmmm?" inquired the guard smugly. "I'm afraid that's something only the Hokage is allowed to know. Sorry!" Now Neko's voice was sickeningly sweet. The guard began to look worried. "Well... um..." "You don't REALLY need to know that to let us through, _right_?" It was Sanshouuo turn now, but instead of sweet, his voice was threatening. "_Right_?" he stressed the word as he took a step forward. By now, the guard was sweating, succumbing to the veiled killing intent in their words. Finally came the straw that broke the camel's back. Hitokage put down Neko's suitcase, reached forward and grabbed the guard's collar, lifting him off his feet, all the while releasing enough killing intent to kill any poor little furry creature that happened to be nearby. "Riiiight?" Sanshouuo whispered getting closer to the man, a hand on the hilt of his sword. "R…r...ri...right…. RIGHT!" He stuttered, becoming hysteric. "Shussei Neko, Itonami Sanshouuo, and Zetsume Hitokage from O…Onigakure, c…clear to enter. W…welcome to Konoha."

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"Well, first things first," stated Neko firmly. "Yea?" asked Sanshouuo curiously. Neko grinned. "We have to check into the finest hotel Konoha has to offer!" she said cheerily. Sanshouuo just stared. "Uh…. huh," he said slowly after a long pause. "What?" Neko asked innocently. "Never mind," Sanshouuo sighed, defeated. "Alright then, first its to a hotel, and then we…" Neko was cut off as a scream pierced the air. Sanshouuo and Neko looked across at each other before Sanshouuo asked, " You want to see what that was, don't you?" Neko nodded her head with a grin. "Thought so," said Sanshouuo, "I guess we can just leave this stuff here for now. Shouldn't take long." They looked to Hitokage who gave a slight nod of confirmation. He opened the case he was carrying, and took out a scythe made from a skeleton. The hips and legs were gone, the spinal cord making an improvised handle. The hands of the skeleton were in front of its chest, holding the blade between them. The skull faced forwards with the mouth hanging slightly open. Neko reached into her bag and pulled out two daggers, both in the shape of a lightning bolt. She strapped one to each hip. The final one of the trio simply unsheathed his katana, which had a dark blue hilt and a blood red blade. They nodded towards each other before dropping their luggage on the side of the street and taking off in the direction of the scream.

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After a short run, the three arrived to at their destination. The sight that greeted them was not what they expected. A genin from Sunagakure held a boy from the leaf as two leaf genin, two kids, and another sand genin watched. Hiding in a tree behind the sand shinobi, they decided to watch.

"You're starting to annoy me," they heard batboy say. Neko looked to her companions. "Think we should step in?" she asked the two. As always, Hitokage remained silent while Sanshouuo said, "If things get violent, we will." They didn't have to wait long. As batboy finished his rant and began to bring back his fist, Sanshouuo nodded. Instantly, the three leapt at the unsuspecting Suna genin.. Neko went straight towards Konohamaru, taking him from batboys hand while simultaneously grabbing one of the daggers at her waist and holding it against batboys throat. Sanshouuo, meanwhile, had leapt from the tree, landed next to the startled genin, and held the blade of his katana to the boy's throat, crossing over Neko's own blade. Hitokage had simply jumped down and grabbed the boy's fist with his own, holding it in a vice-like grip. All this in the span of a second. All was quite for a few moments, and then… the scream came.

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Batboy, as we have affection ally come to know him, had never been this frightened of something in his life. Well, never been this frightened of something that wasn't Gaara. He didn't know what caused it. The man in front of him didn't seem extremely frightening. Creepy, yes, but how can you be afraid of somebody that looks like he just got out of the emergency room? But it wasn't his appearance that was the source of his fear. No, it was the feeling he gave out. He gave off an aura that was filled with hidden malice and yet, at the same time, pain. Sadness. Hate. All mixed in with a large amount of killing intent to form a feeling that chilled him to the core. Batboy tried to say something, but no sound would come out.

It was then that he noticed the weapon the stranger carried. It appeared to be a skeleton holding a curved blade strapped to the man's back. Since he was turned slightly, the skeleton looked away from batboy, who stared numbly at the side of the skull. He just couldn't seem to look away. After a few moments of staring, he caught sight of movement. He knew what he was seeing, but he couldn't believe it. It was then that his eyes meet the empty black void that once held a pair of their own. It was then that batboy seemed to regain his voice.

He released a blood-curdling scream, and pulled back from the hand that held him. After a few tugs, the dead figure let him go, causing him to fall backwards to the ground. He crawled backwards, all the while screaming, until his back met a fence and he could go no further. After a few seconds of futilely looking for somewhere to go, he looked back to the skull. It was facing away from him, in the direction it had when he first saw it. His terror was slowly replaced by confusion, and it was then he noticed the two other people standing where he had been holding the boy. 'Wait… the kid!' he said to himself. He then saw him beside the girl with the daggers, looking confused.

"Who…. who are you?" batboy stammered hesitantly. It was then that Naruto decided to speak up. "Yea! Who are you and what are you doing here?" The girl glanced over to her companions before shooing the boy over to the leaf shinobi, who let out sighs of relief when he reached them. "Well, I'm Neko," she explained, "and that's Sanshouuo." Neko pointed at the before mentioned boy, who was sheathing his sword. "and that is Hitokage." She gestured towards the bandaged horror, who had not moved from his spot. "Tell me," said Sasuke, who had just jumped from his tree and ignored Sakura's exited squeal, "what are all of you doing in our village?" Sasuke, with his cool and incredibly badass entrance utterly ruined, glared at the three intruders, attempting to at least regain a bit of his pride.

It was Sanshouuo who responded. "We're here for the chunin exam. I can only assume our _dear _friends from Suna are here for the same thing." Sakura spoke up after that. "Well," she started, " what are you doing here?" "We heard a scream and came to investigated. When we got here, we saw that guy," Sanshouuo nodded towards batboy, " threatening the kid and decided to stop him." "Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Interjected Naruto. "What's the chunin exam?" Sakura sighed. "You dunce, it's a test where all villages send their finest ninja to compete for the title of chunin, a journeyman ninja. It's also used to…" she said before being interrupted by a voice.

"You…" The voice was quite, but everyone heard the dead sound it carried. Neko and Sanshouuo cast a surprised glance at Hitokage, who was pointing in Sasuke's direction. 'Weird… he doesn't usually talk unless asked a direct question he can't answer with a shake of his head or a shrug…' thought Neko. "What's your name?" He finished. Sasuke smirked. He knew that nobody could ignore him. He _was_ an Uchiha after all.. "Uchiha Sasuke," he said cockily. Naruto was silently fuming. 'Stupid Sasuke! Why is it always about him?' But after he completed this thought Hitokage snorted. "Not you, whelp. _Him_." He said with a nod towards the tree behind Sasuke.

Everybody turned towards the direction he nodded, and saw a boy hanging upside down on a branch of the tree. He wore black pants and black sleeveless shirt with fishnet underneath. He wore average ninja sandals with the bottom of hi pants leg bandaged. On his back he wore a large gourd shaped object. "G…Gaara," stuttered batboy, standing up from his sitting position by the fence. "Sorry, I… I was just…" "Shut up Kankuro" interrupted Gaara, "or I'll kill you." In a flurry of sand, Gaara teleported in-between his frightened siblings. He stood silently for a moment before turning towards Hitokage. "Subuku no Gaara." He said. Hitokage nodded before turning. "And you?" Everyone was quite before Naruto raised a trembling finger towards his face. "M…me?" He asked. Hitokage nodded in confirmation. Naruto grinned. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, Konoha's number one most surprising ninja and future Hokage!" he exclaimed. Hitokage cocked his head to the side a moment before nodding once.

"Well," said Neko slowly, "I suppose we should be going. We left our stuff beside the street and I don't want anyone stealing it." Sanshouuo nodded in agreement. "I guess. Catch you later." He drawled, waving at the group of ninja. Hitokage had returned to being silent, though he cast a glance at nearby tree before nodding. "Wait!" was heard. The three turned towards Sakura who blushed. "What… what villages are you're from? I don't see a headband." Neko smiled. "Onigakure." She said. The next moment the three were gone. Gaara turned. "Lets go." He called back to his teammates. "Ri...right." said Kankuro, before saying to the sand kunoichi, "Come one Temari, it's time to go. She nodded in confirmation before following after Gaara.

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Unbeknownst to most, a trio of ninja was watching from a tree. "Think that one creepy guy saw us?" said a girl. She wore camouflage pants with a white vest. She had long black hair tied into a ponytail. "Which one? The corpse or the insomniac?" asked a boy with jet-black spiky hair. He, like the girl, wore camouflage pants, but in place of a vest had a long-sleeved white tee shirt with kanji written on it. "It doesn't matter," said a figure in the middle. He wore a large white robe and, like his teammates, camouflage pants. His face, like Hitokage's, was wrapped in bandages, though he had his left eye showing. "Just keep an eye on both of them, as well as the Konoha kid with black hair. They may prove… troublesome."

**A/n: Well, that's all for now. Please review, and tell me any ideas you think would be good and/or pairings you want, and I'll see if I can fit it into the story. If not, I may just leave it without any pairings at all. Thanks, bye!**


	4. Preperation

Onigakure 

A/n: Ok, this is he chapter I cleaned up the most. It's shorter, but MUCH less boring and tedious to read. Got rid of that long ass fight between lee and sas-gay (no offense, it's just that he's an ass, and I SERIOUSLY question his sexuality) Anyways, much better is what I'm basically getting at :P.

**Speech**

"Yo": speaking

'Hola': thinking

Ch. 3: Preparation

"I'm recommending all of you for the chunin exam!" Team seven stared at their sensei. "I'm serious! Here, you have to fill out these applications," Kakashi said as he handed all three a slip of paper. Naruto grabbed his paper excitedly, laughing to himself as he read over what it said. "If any of you do not wish to compete," Kakashi continued, "the exam is entirely voluntary. It's your decision as to whether or not you want to turn in the application forms. If you do, then head to room 301 of the academy by four o' clock tomorrow." After finishing his explanation, Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

As the trio walked home, they each kept to their own thoughts. Naruto, as would be expected, was thinking of becoming Hokage and beating Sasuke. The brooding teen himself, however, was thinking of beating someone else. 'Maybe I'll be able to fight one of those two spooks,' he thought with an exited shiver. He chuckled to himself. While the two thought thoughts of victory and glory, their only female teammate's thoughts were entirely different. 'I… don't want to do this...' she thought sadly. 'Both Sasuke and Naruto are further along than I am. This exam would be too much for me.' The bubble-gum haired girl sighed to herself, and continued on her way home.

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In a hotel room somewhere in Konoha, another team listened to their sensei. "You know why you're here," a tall man rumbled, his body hidden by robes and his face covered by a familiar diamond-shaped hat. Neko, Sanshouuo and Hitokage nodded. "Yea, we know," Sanshouuo drawled, "you've only told us every day for a month." The figure in front of him chuckled. "Yes, but it's very important to give your best. In the hundred years our village has existed, we have not once made contact with any other of the ninja villages. It is important that we show our strength now that we have stepped into the light." "I've been wondering about that," said Neko, " why are we suddenly coming out and letting others know of our village?" The figure brought a hand up and scratched his chin. "Well, it was decided to be best. It's only a matter of time before somebody discovers us in this much larger and organized ninja world. I'd rather we show ourselves and get some allies before another country finds us and declares war."

After a moments pause he continued. "I would also like you to wear the forehead protectors I gave you. Though we had no need for them in the past, it'd be best to let them know you're from a village." The trio nodded and grabbed three forehead protectors that were resting on a bed behind them. They were made like any other forehead protector with a plate of metal fastened to a blue cloth. In the middle of the plate were three triangles, two at a forty-five degree angle pointing out with one in-between and slightly above the other two. Underneath these triangles was an oval-shaped eye with a slit pupil. Neko tied hers around her neck, Sanshouuo tied his around hi s upper right arm, and Hitokage tied his head where his eyes would be underneath the bandages. The figure nodded in approval before turning to leave.

On his way to the door, however, he paused. "Hitokage." He called without turning around. Hitokage looked towards the man in front of him. "I expect you to protect those two, even at the cost of your own life," the man said before turning his head to look at Hitokage and chuckling. "Then again," he continued in a mocking tone, "that's not something you have to worry about, is it?" A low growl could be heard as Hitokage replied, "No, Onikage-sama," in a cold and hate filled voice.

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The next day, Sasuke and Sakura were waiting for Naruto to arrive. Sasuke, and surprisingly Sakura, was silent. She, like yesterday, was thinking of here own shortcomings. 'I've never even helped in a fight,' she mused, 'I've always sat on the sidelines and watched Sasuke and Naruto fight while I do nothing.' As she thought this, Naruto ran towards his teammates with a cry of "Hey Sakura!" Sakura looked up and hesitantly returned the greeting. Sasuke cast a glance at his female teammate. 'What's wrong with her?' he wondered before shaking his head. It wasn't the time to think of that. It was time for the chunin exam.

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As team seven arrived at the academy, they were greeted by the sight of two boys blocking the door to room 301 knocking down a green-clad genin. "Please, were begging you, let us in," said a girl with a Chinese style shirt and her hair in two buns walking closer to the duo before she o was hit to the ground. Murmurs were heard from the crowd as one, a kid with spiky black hair and two overly large kunai on his back, started to speak. "What did you say? You misunderstand," he said with a smirk. " Were just sparing you. The chunin exam is incredibly difficult… and we should know. We've failed three times. Some people who make it quit right there… some die… others are crippled… we've seen it all!" At this, the crowd again began to murmur to themselves. "Besides that," the boy continued, "chunin are cell commanders. Any failed mission or dead shinobi are their responsibility. And you little punks have the nerve to apply? Heh, we're saving some time and weeding out the losers before the test."

After that rousing speech, Sasuke stepped forwards. "That sounds good in theory," he began, "but you'd better let me through. And drop the illusion while you're at it." At this, the crowd began getting confused, but the two ninja in front of the door just smirked. "So you've figured it out, eh?" said the one genin who had yet to speak. Sasuke smirked back at him. "It was easy, right Sakura? You were probably the first to notice." Sakura looked at Sasuke in surprise. "You're the most analytical, and best in our cell at understanding illusion." Sakura stared before looking down with a smile on her face. 'Thank you…' she thought before looking up. "Of course I noticed! Obviously were still on the second floor!" She said with a smile as the number above the door warped from 301 to 201. The first of the duo blocking the door spoke again "Hey… not bad. But just being able to see through it isn't enough!" At this, he darted forward, throwing a kick to Sasuke who met with one of his own. Suddenly, a blur shot between them and the green-clad genin who had been knocked down earlier caught both of their legs.

'Whoa,' thought a surprised Sakura, 'he's fast!' As the boy let their legs go, the genin who first threw a kick fell over with a glare towards the interloper. A boy, a Hyuuga judging by the eyes, approached. "Hey," he spoke to the green genin, " That's not we agreed! You're the one that insisted that we avoid drawing attention to ourselves." The boy blushed, embarrassed. "B…but…" he stuttered casting glances at a surprised Sakura. The girl from earlier sighed. "Here we go again…" she said exasperatedly. The boy walked towards team seven, or more precisely, the female of the team.

"Hi. My name is Rock Lee," he greeted. "You're Sakura, aren't you?" Sakura nodded. Lee grinned, a strange flash coming of his teeth. An academy teacher who just happened to be walking by was blinded by the intensity of the light, and stumbled around screaming before falling out an open window. He was ignored. "Would you like to go out with me," Lee asked, paying no mind to the death he had inadvertently caused. "I'll protect you with my life!" Sakura deadpanned. "No… way…" she said, "I am wwaaaayyyy out of your league!" As Lee stared down in rejection, the Hyuuga from before approached. "Hey you," he called to towards Sasuke, "what's your name?" Naruto glared. 'Its always Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke!' he thought, completely forgetting the fact that the creepy boy from yesterday had ignored Sasuke in favor of him." Its common courtesy," Sasuke replied, "to give your name first." "You're a rookie aren't you," the Hyuuga asked, completely disregarding the question. "How old?" Sasuke just glared, saying, "I don't have to tell you a thing." The two turned away and walked off.

Back with team seven, Sakura was looking much more enthusiastic and happy. "Come one Sasuke, Naruto, lets go," she called towards them waving. As they walked away, Lee began to follow. "Lee lets go. What are you doing?" asked his female companion. "You guys… go on ahead," he replied. "There's something I want to check first."

As Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto walked towards room 301, they heard a voice. "Hey you, with the scowl… wait up!" They turned to see Lee looking down at them from a floor above. Sasuke looked up at him, bored. "What is it?" he asked. "You and me, here in now…" he said seriously, "Want to fight?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You want to fight me… here and now?" he asked. "Yes!" cried Lee as he jumped down from the floor above, landing in front of the team. "My name is Rock Lee," he said, pointing a thumb at himself, " Among sticklers, proper etiquette requires me to introduce myself before asking someone else's name… Uchiha Sasuke."

"Huh… so you know who I am." Said Sasuke upon hearing his name. "That's right! I'm calling you out," said Lee loudly as he dropped into a fighting stance. "I want to test my technique against the last member of your legendary clan. Besides…" Lee turned to stare at Sakura, and she stared back. He glared at her for a moment before winking. No way!" Sakura screamed, turning away. "Those eyelashes are creepy! Not to mention the weird hairdo and the caterpillar eyebrows!" Lee paid no mind to her words, blowing a kiss and saying, "You're an angel!" Again, Sakura screamed, throwing herself to the floor in an attempt to avoid the imaginary kiss flying towards her. Standing up and gasping for breath, Sakura turned towards Lee.

"Keep your weird kisses to yourself freak!" she yelled. No one noticed Naruto, who was raising a fist in anger behind them. 'Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! It's all about him! Bleah!' he thought angrily, once again forgetting how Sasuke was ignored in favor of him by Hitokage. "So…" started Sasuke, unaware of Naruto's mental rant, "you're challenging me, even though you know who I am? In other words, you're a fool." After these words Sasuke glared. "So dog-brow… Do you really want to know… what being an Uchiha is all about?" Lee simply smiled. "Absolutely!" he said, while inwardly thinking, 'I can't wait! I'm getting to fight the cream of the crop right away! Soon Gai-sensei, you'll get the proof you require!'

Suddenly, a voice was heard. "Hold it!" Everyone turned, surprised, to look at Naruto. "Let me handle dog-brow. He'll be toast. Just give me five minutes," he said to his team. Lee scoffed. "I have no interest in you. Just Uchiha." Yelling, Naruto charged. "Story of my life! It's always 'Sasuke this' or Sasuke that,' till it makes me want to puke!" He drew closer and closer to Lee until he was close enough to throw a punch, which Lee swiftly moved to avoid. Growling, Naruto pivoted on his hands and threw a kick from on the floor. His opponent fluidly ducked, turned and kicked Naruto with a cry of 'gale force technique!' as Naruto went flying towards the wall.

"Mark my words…" Lee said glaring at Sasuke. "None of you will beat me. I am the greatest fighter among all the genin of Konoha!" 'He stopped my arm…' Sasuke mused. 'Nobody alive can do that. I don't know what techniques he's using, but I want to find out!' outwardly, Sasuke said, "Alright, this could be fun. I accept your challenge." Sakura took a glance at the clock before gasping. "Don't do it Sasuke," she said hurriedly, "We have less than an hour to get to the exam!" Sasuke ignored her and charged Lee, saying "This will only take me five minutes," strangely familiar and famous last words.

What ensued could only be described three words: an ass whooping. Sasuke had been correct in at least one thing; it only took five minutes. What he had gotten WRONG however was the idea that HE would be doing the ass kicking, not the other way around. After being completely humiliated and defeated in 4 minutes and 26 seconds (and spending another few minutes in a daze debating which hurt worse; his body or his pride. He finally settled on his body.) the last Uchiha finally returned from la-la land and paid attention to what was going on around him. He wished he hadn't.

In front of his face was a peculiar sight. First, he noticed the green-clad monstrosity that had just recently beat the hell out of him. What REALLY got him was the much older and taller clone of Lee berating him for using a 'forbidden technique', and behind him was a large…. Turtle????

With varying expressions of shock and disgust, the three stared at the man who was, if possible, even creepier than his clone. "He's… he's got the biggest eyebrows I've ever seen!" yelled Naruto his face resembling that of a fish as he gasped at the offending fuzz balls. Sakura followed soon after, saying, "They're almost… alive…" "And that dorky hair cut…" said Sasuke. "H…hey! Don't try to make fun of Gai-sensei," yelled Lee angrily. "Oh shut up!" scram back Naruto. "I don't even know what to do with all of the freaks that keep appearing around here!' Lee was about to yell back when Gai said, "Lee!" to which the clone replied, "Yes sir?"

"Idiot!" yelled Gai as he slugged Lee across the face, sending him flying. Team seven was now gaping. AS Gai approached Lee, he began crying. "Master…" said Lee, "I…I…" "That's enough Lee! Not one more word," said Gai as he embraced his student. "Gai-sensei!" cried Lee as he returned the embrace. As if by magic, a scene of a setting sun over a calm ocean descended behind the pair as they continued their 'man-hug'.

If team seven had been shocked before, now they were stupefied. Naruto looked as though his brain had frozen, unable to comprehend what was happening in front of his eyes. Sakura had a look of utter disgust on her face and seemed ready to barf, while Sasuke glared, eyebrow twitching, while thinking, 'I lost to this touchy-feely _crybaby_?'

The hugging pair, either not noticing the three onlookers expressions or so used to the reaction they paid it no attention, continued talking.

"I understand, Lee, "said Gai, "It's because your young!" "Sensei!" cried Lee in response. "It's alright Lee," continued Gai, "Mistakes and youth go hand in head. But I cannot let your attempt to break the big rule go unpunished. Your penalty is to sweat after the chunin exams." "I understand!" exclaimed Lee, saluting his mentor. After finishing his talk with Lee, Gai turned to observe team seven. 'Hmmm… unless I'm mistaken, these are Kakashi's students.' He thought, while outwardly he asked, "So… how is Kakashi?" Team seven looked up, surprised. "You know Kakashi-sensei?" inquired Sakura. Gai chuckled. "Do I know him?" Suddenly, as they watched, Gai disappeared from sight. 'What,' thought Sasuke in surprise.

While team seven looked frantically for the missing man, a familiar voice from behind him spoke. "I should think so! Were rivals!" Turning, team seven looked at Gai. "What! How'd he…" started Naruto before being cut off by Gai "The score stands at fifty to –forty-nine." Gai grinned, his teeth shining just as his protégé's had. "I'm stronger than him," he finished, with a smug tone in his voice. 'He's so much faster than Kakashi-sensei!' thought Sasuke. "As you can see, Gai-sensei is amazing!" cried Lee after hearing his idols speech. 'Damn…' continued Sasuke in his mind, "Who _is_ this guy? He says he's better then Kakashi-sensei… and I believe him!' "I know that Lee started this fight," said Gai, "but please, forgive him. Now… you and Lee should head to the classroom, or you'll be late for the exams." As he finished his sentence, Gai threw a kunai at the pinwheel that had stopped the bandage earlier, knocking it loose, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

When team seven finally reached room 301, they found their sensei waiting for them. "Glad you made it after all, Sakura," he said once the team reached him. "This way, you can all apply to the chunin exam." Sakura looked at him, confused. "What do you mean?" she asked. "The way the exams are set up, only teams of three can take them," he said. "But… Kakashi-sensei, you said it was up to us to choose whether or not we apply. Were you lying?" Sakura questioned yet again.

"I said what I did to keep the others from pressuring you into coming along," Kakashi explained, "Even if you didn't want to, one word from Sasuke and you would have come anyway, and gone through with it, though your heart would not be in it." "What would have happened if Naruto and Sasuke had come here without me," Sakura, once again, asked her sensei. "If they had come alone," Kakashi said, "then I'd have turned them back right there. None of you would have gotten through this point without both of the others." At this, Kakashi grinned under his mask. "But you all came because you wanted to, and I'm very proud. Now, get in there!" As Kakashi finished speaking, his three young charges smiled, and walked to the door. "Look out everybody, cause her we come!" yelled Naruto as Sasuke and Sakura opened the door to the first test of the chunin exam.

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As team seven entered the room, and the doors shut behind them, they froze. "Wh…what…" stuttered Naruto in surprise. "What is this…?" finished Sakura for him. In front of them sat dozens of shinobi, from the five major countries, such as Suna and Konoha, and from the minor countries like Ama. As team seven surveyed the crowd, a scream was heard. "Sasuke! Where've you been, cutie?" It was Ino, wearing her usual one-piece purple shirt/skirt and ponytail. "I could hardly wait! It's so exciting, seeing you after so long!" Sasuke looked anything but exited. Annoyed, yes, angry, yes. But exited? No. "Ino-pig, get your hands off Sasuke!" scram Sakura. "Oh, hello Sakura," replied Ino coolly, "still hoping the big forehead look will come in style? How sweet." Sakura growled in annoyance. "What did you say!?" she yelled.

From behind Ino, Shikamaru, a kid with black pants and fishnet shirt and hair in a pineapple shape, and Choji, a 'big-boned' boy with a scarf and orange hair parted two ways, approached. "Why don't you save yourselves the embarrassment of failing and go die, okay?" asked Shikamaru, bored. Naruto approached the two, saying, "Well if it isn't the three stooges." Shikamaru glared. "Stop calling us that!" "Hey! There you are!" said a loud, brash voice. Turning, the group saw Kiba, Shino and Hinata approaching. Kiba was a boy with a fur-lined coat and a dog-like face, who always carried a puppy, named Akamaru, with him. Shino was a boy with black hair, black shades, and a high-collared trench coat that covered the lower half of his face. Hinata, the only girl on the team, has a large cream coat embroidered with the Hyuuga clan symbol, dark purple hair, and lavender eyes.

"So… looks like the gangs all here." Said Kiba with a smirk. Shikamaru turned to regard him with distain. "Including you… unfortunately," he said in the same bored tone. "I guess all three rookie teams tried out this year," Kiba said, ignoring Shikamaru's comment. "So, how long do you think we'll last… Sasuke?" Sasuke smirked and said, "trying to act cool to psych us out, Kiba?" "Who's acting," Kiba chuckled, "The way we've trained, nobody can beat us!" "Oh shut up," yelled Naruto, "You guys won't beat me, let alone Sasuke!"

"I… I'm sorry Naruto," spoke Hinata for the first time, "Kiba didn't mean that the way it sounded." Naruto just stared at her, letting loose an intelligent 'huh?' "Would you guys do us all a favor and shut up?" asked a silver head teen, approaching the gathered rookies. "You would-be gangs of hot-shots are all rookies, right," the boy continued, "All fresh out of the academy? This isn't a school fieldtrip you know." "Who the hell do you think you are?" asked Ino indignantly. "Names Kabuto," answered the teen. "You kids need to open your eyes."

Turning around, the group spotted three ninja with four dashes on their headbands glaring at them. "Those are ninja from Amagakure. They've got short fuses," explained Kabuto. "Everyone's on edge, waiting to take the exam. I wanted to tell you before someone snaps and kills you." Sighing, Kabuto reached into his pocket and retrieved some cards. "But its probably unavoidable," he continued. "Like all rookies, you think you know everything. I remember what it was like. "Kabuto?" asked Sakura. "Yeah?" he replied. "Are you saying this is the second time you've applied?" "Not second… seventh. Twice a year, going on four years now." He said. "Wow. Then I guess you have a lot of experience with this exam!" exclaimed Sakura. "I guess so," said Kabuto, shrugging. Suddenly, Kabuto grinned. "Hmmm… the least I can do is give you sweet little kids some information vital for what your about to do… with these shinobi skill cards. ' he said holding up the cards he had grabbed earlier.

The rookies looked at him, perplexed. "Shinobi skill cards?" asked Sakura. "To put it simply, these store information about the skills we use, transformed into symbol and burned onto the cards with chakra," Kabuto explained. "It took me four years to gather all the data needed for this exam. In all there are over 200 cards." Reaching into the pile, he pulled out a card. "They look blank, don't they?" he rhetorically. "The only way to read the cards is to apply my own, personal chakra. For example, cards like this one…" As he talked, he applied chakra into the card, revealing a map with 3D bar graphs pointing to each country and numbers next to village symbols at the bottom. "This is a map showing all the shinobi applicants to this years chunin exam." He said, seeing their befuddled looks. Seeing the map, Sasuke looked towards Kabuto asking, "Do you also have dossier cards? For each attendee?" "Well…" Kabuto began, "They're far from complete, but I managed to gather a set of cards for this years applicants. If you share some information on the person you're interested in, I'll be glad to look them up." "Gaara from Suna and Rock Lee, from Konoha. " said Sasuke.

"You know their names? No problem then!" said Kabuto, swiping out two cards and holding them up. "Let me see them," said Sasuke fiercely. "First up. Rock Lee. He's a year older than all of you: 20 D-ranked missions, 11 C-ranked. His sensei is Maito Gai." Read Kabuto. "His taijutsu has grown exponentially the last year, though he has no other noticeable talents. This is his first year applying, with his teammates Hyuuga Neji and Tenten."

Holding up the other card, Kabuto began to read. "Next is Gaara. Eight C-ranked missions and one B-ranked one. Wow! Not many genin get B-ranked assignments. Since he's way out in Suna, I don't have as much info on him, but I do know one thing… he's come back from every mission unscathed. Without a scratch." Sasuke and the other genin looked down, pondering this new information. "Now then…" started Kabuto before Sasuke interrupted. "Wait! I need to ask for one more team," said Sasuke. Kabuto smiled. "Sure! Who do you need?" Sasuke thought for a moment before saying, "Neko, Sanshouuo and Hitokage of Onigakure." Kabuto stared at him for a moment before he started laughing. "Sorry, I forgot to mention earlier, but I only have information on shinobi from _real_ villages."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto. "Well, Onigakure is only a myth, a story from before Konoha was ever built." "But… that can't be… we met some ninja that said they were from there yesterday!" exclaimed Sakura. "Then they were lying. Buuut…" he paused a moment. "I guess I can tell you what I know about it from the legends. Onigakure is said to be the first ever hidden village, created a decade or two before the rest. That's when the legend began anyways." The genin nodded in confirmation.

"Anyway," Kabuto continued, "the village was said to be located somewhere between present-day Water, Cloud and Fire country, with one clan from each of these areas. The clans themselves were said to worship demonic gods, and have techniques that mimicked their gods 'divine powers'. As well as this, however, they were said to be able to merge with demons that reflected their gods, whither in appearance or abilities.

"The Shussei, or birth, clan worshipped a cat goddess, who lived among the clouds of their home country and commanded lightning and wind. The clan believed their goddess to have created the human race. In the legends, humans were first lifeless, but came alive when the cat-goddess sent lighting into them to awaken their bodies, and breathed life into them with the winds. To them, women were well respected, as they gave birth, and the births themselves were greatly celebrated, while death was mourned. The techniques their clan was said to possess were those of healing, allowing them to regenerate entire limbs, and even prevent death. As well as this, it was said their clan developed an extraordinary aptitude for lighting and wind based techniques, modeling their abilities after their goddess." Kabuto paused for a moment to make sure that his listeners understood. When they nodded, he continued.

"The Itonami or life clan worshiped a dragon god. They believed that it was he who created man out of clay he had taken from rivers and hardened with his flame. Like the Shussei clan, death was mourned excessively, but for them, when one reached the age of sixteen, the age you were considered an adult, it was a time of great celebration for your life had just reached its zenith. Their techniques revolved mostly around fighting non-lethally, and their elements were fire and water, the very things their god was said to have created them with." He stopped there before Naruto spoke up. "Well? What about the last clan?"

Smiling, and content with the knowledge that they were listening to what he said, he continued. "The last clan is the Zetsume or death clan. The Zetsume clan worshipped a god said to mimic a great many-headed serpent, though it is sometimes said to be a crocodile. They did not believe that it gave them life like the other clans, however. Instead, they believed that the god was the lord of the after-life, and that they were the cast outs of the underworld. Also unlike the other clans, they _celebrated _death, and saw birth as the arrival of another damned soul. To say ritual sacrifice in this clan was common would be an understatement." Upon hearing this, many of the genin blanched. Grinning, Kabuto continued. "Strangely enough, murder and suicide were looked down upon Murderers were 'punished' in some unknown way while suicidal people were said to be cast into the worst parts of the underworld, not even seen worthy of the second chance that life brought. The techniques they used revolved around assassination and other means of killing, and the elements they controlled were ice and earth." "Why ice and earth?" asked Sakura. "Because, when someone dies, the body becomes cold and the body was buried in the ground." Kabuto grinned again. "Along with a member of that persons family who was sacrificed to insure the two could work together and reached their lords dominion."

As the rookies absorbed the information, Kiba spoke up. "You said that they formed a village right? How'd that happen?" Kabuto looked at him and spoke. "Well, they were nomadic clans in relatively close countries. They just happened to meet one another while they traveled. The legend goes on to say that, when they first met, a war broke out between the clans. It finally stopped when a person from the Shussei clan saved the life of an Itonami. When that happened, the two clans stopped, and, seeing this, the Zetsume clan soon followed. The clan heads met and saw that each of the other clans worshipped a demonic god as well. Upon seeing the similarities, the clan heads eventually concluded that they were all the same religion, just different sects of it. Eventually, they learned through their divine gods the story of creation; and it is this legend that most people are told. It goes like this." Clearing his throat, Kabuto pulled out a ninja card and started to read it.

"In the beginning, there was the earth, and upon it, nothing. However, from the void, came three great beings: the gods. There was Tora, the tiger, Ryuujin, the dragon, and Soranamida, the crocodile. Tora took the skies as her domain while Ryuujin took the earth, and Soranamida was left to build for himself a kingdom underground. Upon seeing the lifeless world, Tora and Ryuujin felt an ever-growing sadness, and began to wish for life. Soranamida cared not for the cries of his brother and sister, and retreated to his kingdom underground, as to distance himself from their weeping. Eventually, as Ryuujin swam through the rivers he adored, e spotted a clump of clay blocking the river.

Annoyed with his brother's separation from him and his own inability to create life, he picked up the clay and threw it to the side. When he saw how it moved and stuck together, he had an idea. Thinking of what he desired the new beings to have, he built the first man out of clay, followed by a woman. When they began to fall apart, he started to despair again. In anger, he breathed fire upon the figures, and, in the heat of the flame, the clay hardened. Upon seeing this, his hope was restored. He created many creatures of different shapes and sizes. He continued working until he had a large amount of his new creations, and it was then that he realized that he had no way to give them life. After a moment of thinking, he relized that his sister was the most capable of bring his creations that which he so wished they had. And so, he took to the sky, and told his sister of the clay. After hearing his idea, she was overjoyed, and instantly agreed. She followed Ryuujin to the figures and used her lightning to jostle them into life for long enough for her to breathe into them life of their own with her winds.

"They cried for joy, and were content with watching their creation for several years. However, a problem soon reared its head. They found that their creations were not immortal, as they were. And when they died, the souls were left to wander the world of the living, never finding peace with themselves, wishing only to do what they did in life.

After much debating with one another, they decided that the vast underground kingdom of their forgotten brother was the only solution. For the years before and after they created mankind, their brother had hidden himself beneath the world, never venturing out or attempted to contact his siblings. Now, they were forced to find him. The original hole he had created in his desire to get away had long since disappeared, and the only other entrance they knew of was to the north, completely covered in ice.

"The two had no true way of knowing if it were still there underneath, but they had to reach it. Through a combination of fiery breath and lightning, the gods eventually broke through the ice, revealing that the hole was still there. As they descended into the darkness, they reached a gargantuan chamber, large even by godly standards. It was filled with murky waters, and riddled with floating platforms of ice, grotesque statues of their creations being tortured carved upon them. As they traveled onwards, they reached two large tunnels, branching out in opposite directions. Choosing the left path, they continued their search. They soon regretted the decision.

They came upon a vast chamber filled with fire and smoke. Lakes of lava, spires of rock, and creatures. Creatures unlike anything they had created, and all made of stone. Large, horned humanoids with three eyes, claws and fangs; horrible long-bodied insect-like creatures with thin, whip liked tails and gaping, slobbering mouths; short creatures standing upright on four legs, pincers for arms and a circular mouth filled completely with serrated black teeth, and to complete the horrifying sight, twisted, and demonic versions of the creatures they themselves had made. Disturbed, the two turned and fled from the things their brother had created.

"As they reached the split again, they took the right path. This time, they reached a place completely unlike that which they had left. It was a green, beautiful world, modeled after the surface. However, if one looked closely, they could see it was a fake. Everything was too perfect: everything symmetrical and neat. There was also no life: no animals, no humans, not even one of the twisted creatures that inhabited the hellish area just a tunnel away. Though this was the one place they had yet to search, they could find no trace of their brother. However, from the depths of the fake ocean, he arose, demanding why they dared enter his world. After explaining why they had come, he agreed to help them, upon one condition. In exchange for allowing the souls of the dead to inhabit his world, he was allowed to put some of his creations upon the earth. His siblings agreed, if he would only put those creatures that resembled those they had created, and none of the other horrible monstrosities located in that hell. And so, Soranamida's underground world became limbo, heaven, and hell, and the race of creatures soon to be known as demons was released upon the world, completing the creation of life."

As Kabuto finished reading the legend he looked up at the rookies. They were staring, wide eyed, and silent. Kabuto coughed. "Well, that's how the legend goes at least," he said scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, dissipating the tension "Wow… so it's all a legend? There is no Onigakure?" asked Naruto. "Absolutely not. Konoha, Suna, Ame, Kusa, Taki, and Oto… these are the villages attending this year. However, I don't know much about Oto. It's a new village in a small country, so I don't know much about it. Every other village is well-know and home to strong shinobi," replied Kabuto. "Anybody besides me feeling outclassed?" asked Hinata, the group finally over the story of Onigakure. Sakura spoke next. "What you're trying to tell us is that everyone here…"

"Oh yea," said Kabuto, "They're all like Gaara and Lee. Elite, handpicked shinobi, the best ninja in the world. They have to be! The test is pitiless!" Sakura looked over to see Naruto shivering, facing away from her. "Looks like even our teams overconfident idiot is afraid," she thought sadly. "And who can blame him?' she continued, 'Were all genin here, but were the youngest… absolute beginners. Still, it's not like Naruto. Maybe if I talk to him a bit…' "It's alright Naruto. Nothing to worry about," Sakura said comfortingly. Suddenly, Naruto jumped up and yelled, "MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO!!! AND NONE OF YOU ARE GONNA' BEAT ME!!! YOU GOT THAT?" "What's his problem," Ino asked. Sakura just deadpanned. 'Typical. Too stupid to know he's got problems.' Sakura thought. "Yeah," said Naruto ignoring the glares, "That felt _great_!"

Somewhere in the crowd, the team who had watched team seven and the Suna teams 'meeting' yesterday listened in on the conversations. "So… according to that guys dossier, our village is some little town in a backwater country," spoke the spiky haired boy. "Mortifying, isn't it?" asked the mummy. "Want to have some fun with him?" asked spiky again. The mummy chuckled. "Sounds good! That idiot, treating Oto like some kind of afterthought. Lets give him something to write in that little dossier of his."

Back with the rookies, the rest of the teams were staring at Naruto. "'And none of you are gonna beat me!' The nerve of that kid. Little showoff…' said the pot (Kiba) calling the kettle (Naruto) black. Shikamaru sighed. "That idiot just turned a room full of strangers into a room full of enemies in one sentence!" Meanwhile, Sakura was busy strangling the loud-mouthed blonde, yelling at him. "What are you blathering about!?" Noticing the glaring ninjas, she quickly spat out, "Pay no attention to my friend here… he's… you know… a special-ed ninja…"

In the crowd, the Oto nin appeared to be preparing for something. "Shall we?" asked the mummy. Suddenly, the team dashed forward, in the direction of Kabuto. As they ran, the mummy grabbed the sleeve of his right arm, pulling it up, and revealing a strange device attached to his arm. Then, spiky jumped into the air, reared back his arm, and let fly two kunai. Kabuto jumped backwards, avoiding the kunai, only to come face to face with the mummy, who was holding a hand-sign. He punched forwards with the device-covered arm, which Kabuto, again, avoided. While he grinned and the rookies stared in awe, his glasses broke. The genin stared, shocked. "What's going on?" asked Sasuke, "He dodged the punch, but his glasses broke!" "His nose was probably grazed. Serves him right for acting all superior," said Shikamaru. Suddenly, Kabuto fell forward and began vomiting on the ground. "Kabuto!" yelled Sakura. The team from Oto stepped forward as the genin rushed to the silver-haired teens aid. "You're a pushover, aren't you?" asked the mummy. "Pretty sad for someone who's been an applicant for four years." The spike haired boy smirked. "Better add this to your cards. The three applicants from Otogakure will all make chunin!"

All of a sudden, a gigantic burst of smoke was seen at the front of the room. "Would everybody please just shut up!?" yelled a gruff voice from within the smoke. Out of the smoke appeared a group of jonin, all behind a tall man in a black trench coat. He wore his forehead protector across the top of his head, covering it up, though a single scar snaked out from under it and across his face.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," spoke the man. "My name is Morino Ibiki, and I'll be the proctor and chief examiner for the first part of the exam." Morino pointed. "You…" he spoke, "from Otogakure! You can't carry on any way you please when the exams about to start! Or do you want to be disqualified?" It was the mummy that spoke up. "Sorry, sir. It's our first chunin exam, and we got a little carried away." Ibiki chuckled. "Is that so? Then its high time we laid down a few ground rules. First…" Suddenly, a loud bang cut him off.

Turning his head towards the sound, he saw the door wide open and three figures in the doorway. Two were bent over gasping for breath while one stared, looking down at them. The girl stood up and gasped out. "Sorry were late. Are we in time?" Ibiki stared. In the door way stood the team from Onigakure.

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**A/N: Okay, well, that made it a bit more interesting. Also, fixed a bit of the legend. And didn't shorten it too much neither! Only lost about 700 words! ……………………… yyyeeaaaa, plez read and review, or Hitokage will eateded you. **


	5. The Exams

**Onigakure**

A/n: I'm back after a month in Colorado! It's beautiful up there with all the mountains, but I'm glad to be home.  Plus, that means I can finally update this story! This is the interesting part, with the exams and all, so I hope you enjoy:D

**Speech**

"Yo": speaking

'Hola': thinking

Flashbacky!: Flash back 

** Ch. 4: The Exams**

Everybody stared at Neko, Hitokage and Sanshouuo as they stood in the doorway. Neko, Hitokage and Sanshouuo stared at everybody as they stood at their desks. Silenced reigned for several seconds before Ibiki coughed. Having his intimidation factor cut down by the interruption, he planned to take back every inch from the intruders. Standing up as straight as he could, he bellowed, "And what are you three doing arriving late?" Neko, who had been shifting around nervously, jumped and began bowing, apologizing frantically.

"I'm really very sorry sir!" she said, "We didn't mean to be late, it's just that we had to meet with someone, and then we couldn't find the place and then…" Ibiki raised his hand, cutting off her hurried explanation. "I don't want to hear your excuses!" he said with a glare. Neko stopped and looked up at him meekly. "So…" she began, "you're letting us take the test anyway?" The sadistic man just smirked. "Now who said that I would let you do that?" Neko frowned. "But we were only a few minutes late!" yelled Neko loudly. "And? You were still late, and I don't see any reason to let you stay."

Neko opened her mouth to speak before closing it again and looking to Sanshouuo. He just shrugged and looked to Hitokage, who was looking (as far as anyone could tell) towards Ibiki. After a few moments, he nodded towards the floor. When Ibiki did nothing, he nodded again. Out of curiosity, he looked down, his eyes widening at what he saw. There, on the ground in front of him, was the walking skeleton of a dog.

That in itself was rather strange. However, what really caught his eye was the stack of primed explosive notes atop the dog. 'With that many explosive notes, he could take out this entire building,' thought the proctor, 'and with all these shinobi here, its impossible to get any out.' If it were possible, Ibiki's eyes grew even larger. 'If they die, it could start another great shinobi war, with all the villages of the dead shinobi as enemies of Konoha.'

After this startling realization, he glanced up at the bandaged horror in front of him. Hitokage merely cocked his head in question. After clearing his throat, Ibiki said quickly, "After much consideration, I have decided that it would be fair to say that you arrived in time for the exam, as you missed none of the instructions." After his hurried sentence was over, he glared at the crowd. Now then," he said threateningly, "I have some rules for you…"

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After the rules were laid down and everyone took their seats, the exams were passed out. Looking down at his exam paper, Sanshouuo sighed. This was NOT his day. Not only hade they been late and nearly kicked out, but now he had to do a paper test. 'Oh man,' he thought, 'this test is impossible. I know the answers to maybe one question, but the rest I don't have a clue on! And what the hell is up with the team point's crap? Man, the way this damn test is set up it almost forces you… to… cheat…'

Sanshouuo grinned, showing off his pointed canines. 'That's it! The point is to cheat!' He grinned for a few moments before deadpanning. 'Oh great… the point is to cheat. I've got no problems with it, and Hitokage would cheat even if that wasn't what they wanted, but Neko…' Sanshouuo banged his head to the desk. 'Neko's too stupid to answer any of the questions and too innocent to even _think_ of cheating.'

And he was right. Even as he spoke, Hitokage was looking towards a genin who, after only thirty minutes, had finished his exams. 'Very well… he who is intelligent may finish from brains, but he who is clever needs no effort of his own.' He said in his mind. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a single, short, thin, senbon needle, which he flicked into the back of his targets neck. The genin stiffened for a moment before slumping over, dead.

Without skipping a beat, Hitokage began chanting in a strange, guttural language, consisting of growls, grunts, and hisses while going through a long chain of hand seals. Once upon stopping his chanting, the corpse sat up, and opened its eyes. 'Good…' Hitokage hissed in his mind, 'Now… to get the answers. Read, my friend, and give me what I seek.' The fallen ninja lowered its head and began reading, and as he read, Hitokage wrote, as though he saw through the eyes of the body he had stolen. After copying the last answer, he again spoke to the corpse. 'Good…now, sleep. I may find use of you later.' The genin gave an almost undetectable nod before crossing its arms on the desk, and lowering its head. To anyone looking, it appeared to be nothing more than a genin that had finished early and decided to take a nap.

With Neko, it was an entirely different story. 'What am I going do, what am I going to do!' she scram in her head. 'There is no way that I can answer these questions' Taking a look around, she gasped. 'They… they're all cheating! There's an Uchiha and a Hyuuga using their eyes and that girl there is using mirrors! How can the proctors not see any of this?' Sparing a glance towards the chunin, she saw none that were looking towards the three she spotted writing marks. Neko rubbed her head in frustration. 'Its almost like they want us to cheat… no! No way am I going to do that! Its immoral, indecent and… one of brother's summons?'

Down at her feet was a small salamander, made completely out of flame. As she watched, it moved, burning a message into the floor. 'The point is to cheat. Do it you idiot! - Signed, Sanshouuo.' A vein popped onto Neko's head. 'That jerk! I'll show him who's the idiot… and I told him to call me sister, since mom married dad….but right now…' Neko glanced around, before her eyes settled on the Uchiha she had seen earlier. 'Well, I did help that little boy out the other day… I'll just take his answers as payment!' After finding a justification for her next act, Neko positively beamed.

Sticking her hands under the desk, she ran through a quick series of seals, before letting out a whisper. 'Kaze boushi no jutsu.' Under the desk, the air swirled together before forming a sphere. The next moment, it disappeared, and Neko closed her eyes. Suddenly, she saw under her desk, looking up at herself. 'Hmmm…' she thought, 'it worked! Now, to get the answers.' With a thought, the invisible eye floated towards the last Uchiha, and stole the answers that he himself had stolen. After she finished her copying, the jutsu was canceled, shown only by a small diffusion in the air.

Smiling, she nodded towards Sanshouuo, who had been glancing back at her for the last few minutes. Returning her nod, he motioned down. Neko again glanced under her desk to see a new message. 'Great,' she read, 'now give me the answers.'

Neko stared… and stared… glanced at Sanshouuo and then continued staring at the message. Slowly, her face grew red as she glared at her brother. 'That lazy son of a…' her mind began before an idea sprung into her mind. After going through a quick kuchiyose no jutsu, a small kitten appeared under her desk. Picking her summon up in her hands, she whispered instructions before giving it a piece of paper, and sending it on its way.

A few moments later, the cat reached Sanshouuo, and he took the paper. After a few moments of deciding that the words written on it were the answers, he copied them. Finally finished with his exam, he leaned back in his chair. "Meow." Startled, he glanced down. 'What the hell is that cat still doing there?' Indeed, Neko's summons was starring up at him expectantly. He looked towards his sibling for an explanation, but she merely shrugged and motioned for him to pick it up. He raised an eyebrow, but decided to comply. As soon as he touched the cat, a jolt of electricity ran throughout his body, and he let out a light yelp.

'…Ouch.' was all Sanshouuo thought, before sitting up. Looking towards his sister, he saw the triumphant grin on her face, he sighed. 'At least I didn't have to work for the answers…' he thought before passing out on his desk.

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"So… all seventy-eight of you that are still here… pass the first exam!" 'Wha…?' thought Sanshouuo as he sat up, awakened at last from his shock induced slumber. 'We… passed? What did I miss?' "What do you mean passed?" Sanshouuo heard someone yell. Turning, he saw it was the pink-haired leaf-nin he had seen the day before. "When did that happen? What about the tenth question?"

Ibiki grinned. "There was no tenth question beyond the whole accept or reject thing." He answered, still smiling. "Then the other nine questions were a waste of time!" This time, it was Temari that spoke. "There was no waste. Those questions had a purpose, which they've already served. They tested your skills at spying!" At this, Sanshouuo tuned out. 'So…' he began in his mind, 'It was all just to see if we could spy without being caught, just as I suspected. Still, I wish I hadn't had to sit through the entire damn test waiting for Neko to do the work.'

Suddenly, Sanshouuo's attention was brought back to reality. A large black ball had just smashed through the window, startling chunin and genin alike. Kunai flew out from the ball and stuck into the ceiling, reviling it to be a banner, reading 'Newly arrived second chief examination officer Mitarashi Anko'. "None of you are in any position to celebrate," yelled a woman in a… revealing outfit consisting of a skirt, a trench coat, and fishnet. "Time's a-wasting' people, lets go! Follow me!"

Her loud proclamation was met by dead silence. Ibiki stepped out from behind the banner. "Can't you sense the mood in here?" he asked the newly arrived examiner, who had the decency to blush. After a few moments, Anko perked up. "Seventy-eight? Ibiki, you passed twenty-six team!?" Ibiki just smiled. "We had some… exceptional shinobi."

Anko snorted. "Yea right," she mumbled, "Their numbers will be cut down by half by the time I'm through with them."

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A few minutes later, the remaining shinobi stood in front of a gate separating them from an imposing forest. Their examiner smiled cruelly. "This is the arena for the second exam: training ground 44, also known as the Forest of Death!" The majority of the assembled teams gulped, though the Oni group (aside from Hitokage) just giggled. Anko glared in their direction before continuing her speech. "Your about to find out exactly why it is called the Forest of Death!"

"Oooh, you're about to find out exactly why it's called the forest of death!" It was Naruto. "Like that's really going to scare anybody," he ranted, "You're just trying to psych us out, and I'm not going to fall for it!" "Oh really?" asked Anko with a grin. With a flick of her wrist, a kunai appeared in her hand, which she flung at Naruto, paying no mind for who or what was behind him. The sharp throwing knife flew through the air, slicing Naruto's cheek and nearly hitting the being behind him. Anko didn't seem to mind; she was too busy lapping up Naruto's blood.

"Heh, your kind are always the first to go." Anko took a long lick at the trail of blood going down his cheek. "Spilling all that rich, red, lovely blood…" The next moment Anko stiffened. To her neck was the long, curved blade of a scythe.

'I didn't sense him move…!' Anko thought as she looked back at Hitokage. The mummy held out his scythe so the blade curved in front of the examiner and the skull was next to Naruto's face. After a few moments, he spoke. "You nearly cut Neko-hime." He spoke, holding up her kunai with his unoccupied hand. "Tell me… why shouldn't I cut you?"

Anko stared back at him before Neko popped up beside him. "Sorry Anko-sama!" she said bowing quickly. "He has orders from our leader to protect us at all cost. Hitokage, put away that… thing and give her back her kunai!" Hitokage hesitated for a moment before lowering his scythe and holding out the kunai. "Here you are…" he mumbled in his monotone.

"Right…" said Anko, a little shaken from her inability to sense him. "Anyway, before we begin the exams, I'll need all of you," she spoke motioning to the crowd. "To sign these consent forms. This way we can't be held liable for your deaths. You wouldn't want me to get in trouble, would you?" she asked with false sweetness. After she had passed out the forms, she spoke again. "Now then… the rules. This is a test of survival. I'll explain the rest later. The training ground," Anko held up a map. "Is a perfect circle with forty four gates in fence and a central tower roughly ten kilometers from each gate.

"Once all three members of a cell sign a form, you can turn them in to the hut behind me in return for one of these." At this, Anko held up two scrolls. "This is going to be a fight-to-the-death version of capture the flag, or in this case, capture the scroll. As you can see, one says heaven and the other, earth. Your task is to get both and reach the tower. Thirteen teams will get earth scrolls, and thirteen will get heaven. Thus, only half of you can possibly pass." Anko grinned widely. "Not to mention, there's a time limit. You have five days to get both scrolls and reach the tower."

"What!? What're we supposed to do for food!" screamed Chouji, typical of your average… 'big-boned' young man. "That's your problem," Anko said with a shrug. "Now then, how you can be disqualified. One is of course if you fail to reach the tower in time, or reach it without both scrolls. The second way to lose is by losing a member either by death or injury. And finally… it is forbidden to look in either of the scrolls." Naruto raised an eyebrow. "And if we decide to take a peek?" Anko chuckled. "That's for those that look to find out! Now then… turn in your scrolls and prepare for the exam!"

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At gate forty-four, the Oni team stood waiting or the gate to open. "So… what's the plan?" Neko asked her teammates. Sanshouuo snorted. "We have an earth scroll, so we hunt down a team with a heaven scroll and get the hell out!" Neko huffed. "Well yea, but how do we know what team has a heaven scroll?" "Well… I" started Sanshouuo before he was interrupted by Hitokage. "I know where to get a heaven scroll." He murmured. Neko and Sanshouuo grinned. "Oh? Do tell."

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"Okay Makeoshimi, what's wrong with you? You've been acting strange ever since the first exam." Said a girl to her teammate. "Mukudori is right. You're not yourself. What's up?" The man they boy they were talking to sighed. "I've told you," he began in a mechanical sounding voice. "I just don't feel well." It was the genin Hitokage had killed. "Yea right. Mekura checked you over, and your fine." Said Mukudori.

Unbeknownst to the deceased's teammates, the Oni team was watching from a nearby tree. Sanshouuo looked to Hitokage and whispered, "Now." Hitokage nodded before sending a silent message to his puppet. 'Kill.' "I…" began the dead Makeoshimi before he stopped. "Well?" asked his expectant teammates. Instead of answering, the corpse whipped out a kunai and threw it into Mukudori's throat.

"MUKUDORI!" yelled Mekura. He turned towards his seemingly deranged teammate. "You'll pay… I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!" Mekura pulled out a handful of senbon and threw them at Makeoshimi. Instead of attempting to dodge, he let the needles pierce his throat, and kept on advancing to his former teammate. "Wha… what? Why won't you die!?" "Foolish boy," came a dead hiss behind him. Turning, he saw Hitokage. "You can't kill whats already dead." As he spoke, the fallen Mukudori arose, and yanked the kunai from her throat. Makeoshimi did the same with the senbon, and together they advanced, boxing in their third teammate.

The screams could be heard throughout the forest.

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Across the forest, team seven was having an encounter of their own, though theirs was not fairing as well as the Oni teams had. Naruto had been blown away by a large gust of wind, and the imposter Naruto had just stunned Sasuke and Sakura with visions of their own deaths. Sakura stood their shaking uncontrollably while Sasuke got a second look at his breakfast. 'Hmm… I don't remember having any toast…' As he sat up to look at his opponent, the grass nin threw a pair of kunai at the last Uchiha. Moving quickly, he dove out of the way and stopped, leaning against a tree. In his leg, a kunai of his own was imbedded. 'Very nice,' thought the mysterious shinobi, 'He stabbed himself in the leg so he could concentrate on the pain and break of the illusion.'

While Sakura and Sasuke dealt with their attacker, Naruto had a problem of his own. For one, he had just been blown away y a gigantic gust of wind and sent flying. As he flew, he could think of only one thing to say: 'Hey, I can see my apartment from here!' This track of thought did not last long for, Naruto, like all things, had weight, and there for had to fall down.

Though he could have landed on a soft patch of grass, or have his decent slowed by a number of branches, his trajectory chose instead to send him flying straight into a tree. "Ouch." Was all he said as he slumped down and slowly righted himself. "Where am I, and where did Sasuke and Sakura g…oh my god it's a giant freaking snake."

After avoiding the initial strike, Naruto thought he was safe… except he forgot that, though snakes lacked arms, they had very agile tails. Said appendage was quick to wrap around him and toss him into the snakes awaiting mouth.

Inside the long throat of the snake, Naruto was thinking fast. 'Lets see… how can I keep a gigantic armless iguana from eating me?' as he thought, a memory of him and Sasuke throwing up came to mind. With a grin, Naruto yelled, "Kage bushin no jutsu!" All of a sudden, dozens of Naruto's sprang into existence inside the belly of the giant reptile, causing a rather large explosion of gore.

Out of the remains of the once great serpent stepped Naruto, looking disgruntled, but happy. Wiping off some of the blood from his hands and dismissing his clones, he took a look around. "Well, got that over with. Now, to find Sasuke and Sakura." He said aloud, apparently to the remains of the snake that had tried to have him for brunch.

While Naruto left to search for his teammates, they had a snake problem of their own, though it was significantly smaller. As it chased after the frightened Uchiha, the black haired pre-teen jumped in an attempt to lose it. As he jumped, he snake lunged and Sasuke lodged a few shuriken in its face.

From the corpse of the reptile came the grass nin. "You really shouldn't let your guard down! You should stay on your toes, like good prey should. It makes the chase much more interesting for the predator." He said before slithering up the tree he was on like a snake, elongating his body to do so. Before he could reach his so-called prey, however, a barrage of kunai and shuriken blocked his path.

"Sorry Sasuke… I can't remember that stupid password!" said Naruto from his perch on a nearby branch. "Run Naruto! This guys way out of our league!" yelled Sasuke towards his savior. Turning towards their attacker and pulling out the scroll, he called out, "If this is what you want, come and take it! Just… take it and go!" Naruto gaped at what Sasuke was doing. "What the hell! What do you think you're doing! Is this how you beat the enemy? By handing over everything we have?" Ignoring Naruto, Sasuke tossed the scroll to the predator in front of him.

Naruto quickly jumped forward and snatched the scroll mid-air, landing next to Sasuke. "Stay out of this! You'll ruin everything!" yelled Sasuke angrily. Naruto didn't reply: instead, he pivoted and slugged Sasuke in the face. "Naruto, what are you…" spoke Sakura for the first time from her hiding place behind a tree. "This Sasuke is obviously a fake! I forgo the stupid password so I can't prove it, but he is!" "Naruto you idiot, I'm me!" growled Sasuke at this accusation. "That's bull! You're a coward, which Sasuke isn't! Besides, if you hand over our scroll, there's no guarantee he'll let us live!"

The grass nin, who had stood by all this time, chuckled. "Oh Naruto! This is rich! And you're right! Why bargain when I can kill you and take what I want?" he said, swiping a bloody thumb across a tattoo on his arm "Shut up!" yelled Naruto as he charged. AS he ran, a gargantuan snake appeared underneath the nin, obliterating any trees in the way. It swung its tail, knocking Naruto through a thick branch and into a tree, causing him to cough up blood.

"Excellent… but let's eat him to be sure!" ordered the nin to his snake. "Eat this, asshole!" yelled Naruto as he kicked the reptile in the face. Naruto had tapped into the Kyuubi's power.

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Miles away, a figure stopped in his run and turned in the direction in which the battled raged. 'Hmmm… this is the demonic power I sensed in the boy… perhaps…' It was Hitokage. Seeing that their teammate had stopped, Neko and her brother halted in their run. "What is it Hitokage?" asked Sanshouuo. After a few moments he said, "I am going to… look into something. I will meet you at the tower." The siblings shrugged before continuing their dash to their goal. 'Now,' Hitokage thought as he ran towards the power he felt, 'to see if I am right.'

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With a gust of wind, the grass nin blew Naruto away from his pet. 'Look at those eyes..!' he thought, speaking of Naruto's now red eyes. 'He he… and the fun's just begun!' Out loud, however, he said, "Now it's Sasuke's turn! How will he take it?" After he finished his sentence, his snake turned and plowed towards its target.

"Are you okay, you big chicken?" asked Naruto. He had jumped in front of the snake and stopped with two kunai. After staring at Sasuke for a few moments, Naruto let out a yelp as he was picked up by the long tongue of the grass nin. The nin quickly ran through seals and slammed a hand into the seal on Naruto's stomach. Taking the heaven scroll from Naruto's body, he tossed him away.

Sakura quickly flung a kunai, catching Naruto's jacket and saving him from a fall to his death. 'No!' yelled Sasuke in his mind, activating his sharingan and pulling out five kunai and a fuuma shuriken. He threw the kunai at his snake-like enemy, who slithered in and out of the knives. Grabbing onto a tree and using it to pivot himself, he threw the shuriken. The grass nin jumped, then flung himself to the side to avoid the kunai that followed.

The nin's face was split by a grin, before he gasped. 'String?' Even as he thought this, Sasuke pulled the string, sending the shuriken straight into his enemies face. Sasuke grinned, before forming the tiger seal and sending a line of flame down the line and burning the nin's face.

Instead of screaming in pain, as any normal person should, the nin merely giggled laughed as the skin peeled away, revealing a snake like eye and pale skin underneath. 'Who… who are you?" asked Sasuke. "I'm Orochimaru," he said as he wiped away the grass symbol on his headband, revealing a music note. "If you ever want a rematch, finish this exam as quickly as you can!" Holding up the heaven scroll he had stolen from Naruto's limp body, he caught fire to it and threw it aside. This strange deed done, he formed a seal and his neck stretched to extraordinary proportions, and he bit down onto Sasuke's neck.

As the nin pulled away, a strange symbol similar to a fuuma shuriken formed on Sasuke's neck, and he collapsed on the ground in pain. "I look forward to seeing you again Sasuke in the quest for power!" called Orochimaru as he sunk down into the bark off a tree, disappearing.

In a nearby tree away from the battlefield, Hitokage cocked his head. He had arrived only in time to view Orochimaru's final confrontation with the Uchiha. "…The boy is weak…" he thought as he gazed in Naruto's direction. Hitokage snorted in disgust. 'So much power, and no control…. Such a waste." As he turned to leave, however, he paused. 'Perhaps,' he began, 'something can be done.' He shrugged and leaped away, off to meet his companions.

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(Call me lazy, but I'm skipping to the tower, as I'm sure you've all heard this before.)

"Congratulations to you all on passing the second exam!" yelled Anko, her voice amplified by a headset connected to loudspeakers. 'Hmmm… we started with seventy-eight contestants… still, its incredible that twenty-seven made it!' (Real quick, in the manga it was 21, but now there's the Oni team, and a team for them to fight. Coughkillcough) "Now," said Anko aloud, "The Hokage will explain the third exam! Listen up!"

"Thank you, Anko." Said the Hokage as he looked over the gathered genin. "Now then… the third exam is about to begin. As you may or may not know, this exam is a supplement of war. The strength that the shinobi in this exam show reflects the strength of their entire country, and effects their influence in the shinobi world." "Hey! I thought this was a test to select chunin!" yelled Naruto in confusion. "Make no mistake, some of you _will _leave as chunin, but in doing so, you effect your nation, and the way it is viewed in the eyes of enemies, allies, and potential clients." Gaara snorted. "Whatever. Now, can we get to the life or death stuff anytime soon?"

The Hokage frowned. "So, you insist that I explain the exam?" he asked the insomniac. Suddenly, a man appeared in front of the Hokage. "Excuses me, lord Hokage, but if you don't mind, I'll take it from here." The Hokage nodded, and the man continued, this time addressing the crowd. "Hello, I'm Hayate, cough, the proctor for the third exam. Before we begin, however, we'll need to do a, cough, preliminary match."

This proclamation was met by silence before Sakura spoke up. "Preliminaries?" she inquired. "Like what? Why can't all the remaining applicants just go on to the final exam?" "Well, started Hayate, "To be frank, cough, there are too many of you. Many important, cough, nobles will be attending the final matches, so we need the final exam to be brief, intense and, cough, fast moving. Anyway, anybody that doesn't, cough, feel up to it can leave, as the preliminaries for the final exam start, cough, now."

Kabuto raised his hand. "Well, I'm out. Sorry Naruto, but I'm beat, and ever since those sound nin's attacked, I can't hear out of my left ear. Good bye." Naruto sighed and dropped his head, disappointed. Looking around, Hayate spoke again. "Well, it looks like no one else is going to, cough, quit," said the sickly lead nin. "Now, we'll begin the preliminaries, which will consist of no holds, cough, barred, one-on-one fights. Seeing, cough, as there are twenty-six of you remaining, we'll have thirteen matches, the, cough, winners of which will advance to the final exams."

"Open it," spoke Anko into her headset, at which point a wooden screen lifted, revealing an electronic scoreboard. "This," said Hayate, motioning to the newly revealed equipment, "Will show the names of the two, cough, contestants that will participate in each round. Not to hurry you or anything, but, cough, we'll go ahead and, cough, select the first two combatants. The assembled genin turned to stare at the board as it selected the two people that would participate in the first match of preliminary third exams.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi.

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'Now, how will I do this," thought Sasuke as he stared at his enemy. After being forbidden to use his sharingan, and unable to use chakra due to curse seal on his neck, he was left with very few options. He didn't have long to think, however, as Hayate let out a cry of 'Begin!' "Shall I start?" asked Yoroi, as he formed the tiger seal and grabbed three shuriken from a pouch on his hip. As he threw them, Sasuke whipped out a kunai, and batted the stars back to their owner.

Yoroi strafed sideways, and charged Sasuke, imbedding a fist in the ground where Sasuke's head would have been. As he rolled to avoid the attack, Sasuke stabbed his kunai in the ground and used it as a focal point to turn himself and sweep the legs out from his masked opponent and get him in a hold. Strangely, instead of attempting to break free, Yoroi simply grabbed Sasuke's shirt. Confused, Sasuke stared at the offending appendage before his eyes widened in shock.

"My… my strength…" he mumbled, weakly pulling on Yoroi's arm. Instead of replying, Yoroi pulled away his arm, smacked Sasuke in the gut, and leapt up. Sasuke lay there, gasping, as Yoroi dove forward and latched his hand onto his face, letting out a laugh as he succeeded. "You're feeding on my chakra…" said Sasuke weakly as he again felt his strength leave him. The masked nin smirked behind the cloth covering his face. "So you finally figured it out, did you?" As he said this, he pushed harder onto Sasuke's forehead and increased the drain on his victim's chakra. Groaning, Sasuke kicked Yoroi in the chest, and slowly stood back up.

Up the stands, Gaara glared at the last Uchiha. "So… this is all you can do, Uchiha Sasuke?" A few feet from him, Sanshouuo shrugged. "Not impressed," he said, looking at Neko as she talked animatedly to Hitokage, who stared stoically ahead.

Hearing the doubt in their voices, Naruto turned to Sasuke with intent. "You call yourself Uchiha Sasuke? You're a disgrace to… to… to yourself!" yelled Naruto, displaying his incredible talent in linguistics. "Aren't you embarrassed to let everyone see you as weak?" When Sasuke turned his head to look at Naruto, inspiration struck. Standing next to Naruto was one Rock Lee.

'That's it!" he yelled in his mind. "Ha! You shouldn't let your mind wander! Now I'll take all your chakra!" yelled Yoroi, victory in sight…. Until his chin met Mr. Foot. The confrontation ended with Yoroi flying into the air, with Sasuke following close behind him. It was an exact copy of Lee's attack.

As Sasuke flew through the air underneath Yoroi, Orochimaru's 'parting gift' began spreading along his neck. Through sheer force of will, Sasuke managed to force it back. Assured of his all superior greatness, Sasuke smirked. "Got you." Twisting around Yoroi in mid-air, he aimed a kick at his stomach, which was promptly blocked. Not missing a beat, he kicked of and allowed Mr. Foot to become once again reacquainted with Yoroi's chin, before clothes lining him in the stomach, sending both of them plummeting to the ground. Right before hitting, however, Sasuke flipped and smashed his heel down into Yoroi's stomach, sending him into the land of lollipops and talking walrus's. Coo coo cachoo. (Thank you to all those that got that.)

Hayate walked forward before checking Yoroi over. Seeing Sasuke stand, he smiled. "I'm stopping this match before it goes any further. Uchiha Sasuke wins the first match!"

While Sasuke walked away with the med nin's to the cheers of his fellow leaf nin, the scoreboard flashed another set of names. "The second match, cough, is between Abumi Zaku and Aburame, cough, cough, Shino!" announced Hayate. The combatants, hearing their names, walked down and took positions facing one another. "Second match, begin!"

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In an unknown location, Kakashi was busy sealing away Sasuke's curse mark. While Sasuke sat, his legs crossed, his sensei wrote seals in a circle, with nine lines of them leading to Sasuke's curse seal. "There," stated Kakashi with finality as he wrote the last seal in his blood and began rapidly flying through hand seals. As he reached the last seal, he slammed his palm onto the curse mark. Quickly, the seals he had painstakingly drawn withdrew into Sasuke's mark, forming a circle around it. The self-proclaimed avenger wobbled a moment before slumping over, passed out.

"I see you've mastered the art of sealing. Looks like you're all grown up." Kakashi's eye widened at the sound of the voice. "Orochimaru." He said, turning to look at the snake sannin. "What do you want from Sasuke?" Orochimaru shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, you know how things go… two people have something, and a third's just got to have it as well! It just so happens that what I want is…. the sharingan!"

"What for?" inquired Kakashi. "Well…. Good help is so hard to find these day's, and I need all the pawns I can get." Orochimaru answered. Suddenly, a chidori burst into life in Kakashi's hand. "Stay away from Sasuke. You may be one of the three sannin, but as I am today, I can still kill you!"

Slowly, a chuckle erupted from between Orochimaru's lips, before turning into a full-blown laugh. "So you say… but can you back it up" Orochimaru turned around and began walking away, calling behind him, "There will be a time when Sasuke will come o me in his quest for power. Meanwhile…" he said without turning around. "Weren't you going to kill me? Or are you all talk?"

Before Kakashi even had a chance to move, a wave of killing intent washed over him, filling him with a vision of his own death. Orochimaru had escaped.

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The match was extraordinarily short. After being hit one time, Shino released his bugs and sent them into Zaku's wind tunnels, causing an unfortunate explosion leading to the loss of Zaku's arms. Picking up Zaku, and placing his arms on his chest, the medic nin's carted him away.

Turning their attention away from the crippled Oto nin, the applicants saw the next two combatants: Kakaru Nezumi vs. Shussei Neko. Grinning, Neko back flipped over the railings and landed nimbly, waiting for her opponent who simply walked down the stairs. When her opponent, a mousey looking boy with mousey brown hair and buckteeth wearing an Iwa headband, finally reached the bottom and took his place across from her, Hayate yelled, "Begin!"

Instantly, Neko whipped out the two daggers at her waist and darted towards Nezumi. Startled at the sudden attack, Nezumi stumbled before coming to his senses and fighting back. He pulled out a handful of shuriken, hoping that the throwing stars would at least distract his enemy. No luck. Neko just flipped over the weapons and continued her charge.

"Come back her little mouse, kitty wants to play," called Neko as Nezumi turned tail and ran towards the wall. When he reached, he jumped up and clung to the wall with chakra. Neko just grinned. "Kyousei ichijin no jutsu!" she yelled after running through a series of seals, sending a gust of win after her prey. The wind hit him with the force of a train, sending him flying off the wall, and landing a few feet away. Neko turned, again charging her this time-downed opponent.

"Wait, the match is over! He can'… began Hayate, but Neko ignored him, not even bothering to turn her head as she plunged her daggers into her victims chest. A sadistic grin appeared on her face as electricity erupted from her blades and danced in the air around her. Nezumi's body convulsed until the electricity subsided, and he grew still, very much dead.

Neko stood up and smiled sweetly. "Heh… raikou ichimi really works." She turned to Hayate. "Did I win?" she asked him innocently. Silenced reigned until she spoke up once more. "Hellooo? Anyone there." She walked up to Hayate and waved a hand in his face. "Did I win or not? He's not fighting any more…"

Snapping out of his daze, Hayate cleared his throat. "Um… cough, the winner of the third match is, cough, Shussei Neko." Neko's soft smile expanded into a grin. "Yay! Hear that Sanshouuo? I won!" Neko jumped up to the railing and flying tackled her brother.

"Great, now get the hell off me!" yelled Sanshouuo angrily. Neko hopped up and stuck her tongue out at her brother. "You're so mean! I'm sure Hitokage cares, don't you?" She turned to her still silent teammate, who turned in her direction, stared for a moment, then turned back to face the arena. A sigh escaped Neko's lips as she sat down and crossed her arms. "You're both so mean. Why can't you just congratulate me?" she pouted. Her teammates didn't reply.

Sighing, Neko turned her attention to the next battle, just in time to see one combatant snap the others neck. 'Wait, isn't that batboy? What was his name…? Kankuro?' "He just wouldn't give up… so I killed him." Said Misumi to the ref. Kankuro's head twisted around to face his 'killer' and said, "And now I can return the favor!" As he said this, the face paint crumbled away, revealing wood underneath. Arms ripped out from Kankuro's sides and wrapped around Misumi, squeezing tighter and tighter as Misumi managed to choke out, "It… it's a p… puppet!" The bundle that the puppet dropped unraveled to real the real Kankuro. "That's right. Now then, I'll just crush your bones. Don't worry, I'll leave your neck intact," said Kankuro, manipulating his puppet to squeeze until a loud, satisfying snap resounded around the stadium. "Winner do to, cough, Misumi's inability to continue, cough, is Kankuro!" announced Hayate.

(I'm skipping the next few matches, Ino vs. Sakura, Ten Ten vs. Temari, Kin vs. Shikamaru, due to the speed, dialogue, and simplicity of the three. Don't want to write them. I'll skip to the next match in my tournament, where you finally get to see Sanshouuo get off his lazy ass and kick someone else's!)

"The next match is between Itonami Sanshouuo vs. Tokage Agemono. Will the contestants please get down here?" called Hayate. "Hey, Sanshouuo, you're up!" beamed Neko picking up her brother who had fallen asleep during the matches. "Get… down there!" she yelled excitedly as she chucked her brother over the railing with a surprising display of strength. Sanshouuo flew through the air, sleeping peacefully; unaware that he was two feet from the rock-hard concrete… until he was _no_ feet from the rock-hard concrete.

"…Ouch." He mumbled through a mouthful of rock. As he stumbled up, he faintly heard Neko call out, "Good luck!" 'Luck?' he wondered, confused. 'With what? Where am I?' His musings were cut short, however, as he heard a cry of, "Doseki kouya no jutsu!" Suddenly alert, he jumped just in time to avoid small grass-like rocks as they sprang from the ground. Sticking to the wall he surveyed the situation. 'Oh… it's my turn to compete… and, lucky me, I got a guy from Iwa.' His opponent, a burly guy with a sleeveless shirt and a baldhead, was glaring at him. "Your teammate killed my teammate. For that, I'm going to kill you!" He yelled as he began to run through seals. Sanshouuo deadpanned. 'Great,' he thought, 'the gorillas on the team of the dude Neko fried. A guy that's all muscle and no brain hell-bent on killing me. All before lunch too! What a day…' complained the Oni nin in his mind, once again paying no attention to his opponent till the last moment.

"Doseki kyanonbo-ru no jutsu!" "Shit!" yelped Sanshouuo as he jumped away from the large boulder that had attempted to get personal with his face. 'Let's see, he thought as he ran around the wall avoiding the continuous barrage of boulders. 'Can't touch the ground because of all the needles… and can't stop running because of the damn boulders this ass is shooting at me!" The last part of the sentence he had screamed out loud at said ass, who just laughed and kept firing. Sanshouuo's eyes widened as he looked at his foe. 'Wait a minute… there aren't any needles around him… but there isn't anywhere for me to stand… oh well, I'll make a place.' As he finished this thought, he jumped off the wall and flew to his opponent, who grinned.

"Doseki kyanonbo-ru no jutsu!" he yelled, another boulder erupting from the ground and flying to Sanshouuo, who just sighed. "Kazangan handou no jutsu," he mumbled as he threw a kick at the rock, his foot covered in fire. The flames heat was hot enough to melt the rock, and the liquid rock flowed to wrap around Sanshouuo's leg. Agemono's victorious laugh quickly morphed into a scream as the lava-covered foot made contact with his face, and slammed him into the rock needles that he had raised all around him. Blood flew as the needles tore his back open and the doseki kyanonbo-ru obliterated his head and melted the needles around it. Sanshouuo spat on the corpse. "Shouldn't have made me use effort…," he told the broken remains as he jumped back to the stands.

"Winner, cough, Itonami Sanshouuo, cough, cough," said Hayate from his vantage point on the wall (away from the needles that had nearly skewered his feet). "Humph… glad that's over." Said Sanshouuo as he returned to the stands. Hitokage, after nearly an hour of silently staring at one spot, spoke. "I'll be back." With that, he walked off, following the medic nins as they carried away the lifeless body of Agemono. His teammates nodded, seemingly aware of whatever he was planning to do.

Down in the arena, a quick jutsu fixed the floor in time for the next fight, Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba. "Oh yea! We can take this easy Akamaru!" yelled Kiba, confident in his victory. Naruto meanwhile was yelling in excitement, unaware of Lee's disappointment of being near last.

Down in the arena, Kiba started laughing. "We lucked out boy," he addressed Akamaru, "This fight is as good as won!" "Hey, don't be so cocky! And send the dog home, he'll just get in the way!" yelled Naruto in return. Kiba just smirked. "Shows what you know! Akamaru fights with me!" Naruto turned to face the referee. "Hey, is that allowed?" he asked. "Well, cough, any animal or insect used with a juutsu is technically, cough, considered a weapon, cough, and can thus be used." Choked out the sickly jonin. "Fine! I work best with a handicap anyway." Said Naruto confidently. "Ha! Two can play that game! Sit this match out, Akamaru; I've got this one."

"Ninth match, begin!" called Hayate, stepping away from the fighters. Crouching down, Kiba called in his mind, 'Shikyaku no jutsu!' Out loud he said, "Here I come!" as claws and fangs formed, and the pupil of his eye became slanted. Kiba suddenly darted forward, shoulder tackling Naruto before he even had a chance to move. "He's down for the count, sir!" said Kiba with finality. As the crowd above mumbled in disappointment, Naruto staggered to his feet. "Don't… underestimate me…," he said with a glare to Kiba. "Big talk for someone that's bleeding everywhere," said Kiba with a smirk.

Naruto just grinned. "Don't you get it? I let you hit me so I could tell what you were made from. You're so full of yourself, but you can go ahead and fight me with that dog or in any way you want!" "You'll be sorry," growled Kiba, charging forward with Akamaru at his side. Before he reached Naruto, however, he chucked a small black ball, releasing a cloud of thick black smoke. Naruto instantly did what made most sense: getting out of the smoke. However, it was a trap. Akamaru pounced at him the moment he escaped, knocking him back in. As the smoke finally cleared away, it revealed Naruto, apparently knocked unconscious, with a victorious looking Akamaru standing next to him.

"Ha ha ha, good one Aka…" started Kiba before his beloved dog latched onto his arm. Kiba gasped in pain and surprise as Akamaru transformed into Naruto, who quickly released him, spitting and coughing. "Ew, you taste like dog!" scram Naruto. "Where's Akamaru you bastard," questioned Kiba, before he heard a whine. Turning, he spied another Naruto holding up his dog. Growling, Kiba said, "I guess you've gotten stronger… So this time, I won't hold back." "Naruto grinned. "Right back at you!"

"I mean it… no holds barred!" As Kiba finished his sentence, he flicked a small red pill into Akamaru's mouth. Slowly, growling and snarling, Akamaru's fur turned red. Breaking free, he jumped onto his master's back as he yelled, "Jujin bunshin!" Akamaru was replaced by another Kiba, fangs and all. Both Kiba's charged Naruto missing by an inch as he back flipped away. 'Even with all my chakra going into my legs, I can barely dodge him,' thought Naruto as he weaved in and out o the two Kiba's attacks. As Naruto jumped into the air to avoid twin swipes from his opponents, one Kiba grinned. 'There's my chance,' thought the real Kiba. "Gatsuuga!" he yelled, becoming a spinning whirlwind of claws as he and Aka-Kiba plowed into Naruto from opposite directions.

"Ha! See? I'm stronger than you! No way a little wimp like you could ever be Hokage," mocked Kiba to Naruto's fallen form. "I'll tell you what… I'll become Hokage in your place!" After hearing this insult, Naruto stood up, his hair casting shadows over his eyes. "If you…. Ever… get in the way of my dream to become Hokage… you'll be whimpering like a whipped dog." He said as he lifted his head to glare at Kiba. The dog-boy snorted. "You're stubborn, aren't you?" Once again the two Kiba's charged forward and preformed the gatsuuga, kicking up dust as they tore through Naruto. 'Now what…' thought Naruto as he looked around. Upon seeing the clouds of dust swirling around him, he was struck by inspiration. 'Got it,' he thought to himself as he transformed into Kiba. As the dust blew away, the two Kiba's were surprised to see a third one, charging as well. After a few moments of glancing around in confusion, one Kiba, the original, smirked. "A word of warning… your transformation tricks no longer work on me…. Because," He slugged the Kiba to his right in the face, sending him rolling. "…I can smell you." Finished Kiba. However, Kiba's smirk was wiped clean as the Kiba he had punched turned into… Akamaru? "What's going on!? If he's Akamaru…" he began, whipping around to the Kiba behind him, "Then you must be Naruto!"

As this Kiba rolled, however, it to turned into Akamaru. 'What?!' gasped the real Kiba in his mind, unable to grasp the situation. Hearing a noise, he turned just in time to have Naruto's kick make contact with his chin. 'So… he transformed into the dog as once he was hit, tricking Kiba into hitting the _real_ dog, then transformed back to launch a surprise attack on Kiba… interesting.' Thought Sanshouuo as he lazy watched the fight, unable to sleep do to his sister's constant chatter.

Growling in anger at having taken out his own partner, Kiba pulled out eight shuriken. "Ha! There's a new killer move I've been practicing that should end this," boasted Naruto as he flashed through seals. "Yea?" asked Kiba, "well I'm not going to let you use it!" He let lose the shuriken, dashing towards Naruto as he jumped around the stars. Sliding behind Naruto, Kiba prepared for the finishing move when…

"Poot." Naruto farted. Kiba screamed in pain, his enhanced sense of smell causing him to be paralyzed by the sudden stench. "Well, I may have milked that a little too much, but here it is, my new technique!" yelled Naruto as he formed four shadow clones. Three clones formed a circle as one slugged Kiba in the face with a cry of "U", sending him flying into the middle of them. As the real Naruto used the first clone as a step and jumped into the air, the three Naruto's slid in and kicked Kiba up with separate cries of "Zu", "Ma", and "Ki". Finally, the real Naruto dropped from above Kiba and drop kicked him into the ground with a final cry of, "Naruto rendan!"

"And the winner is… cough, Uzumaki Naruto!" yelled Hayate, announcing the end of the ninth match.

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(Sorry to anyone that likes this fight, but I'm skipping the Hyuuga fight. Too much dialogue you have to put in it. The Gaara/ Lee fight is still going to happen, followed by (because I'm skipping the Chouji/ mummy guy fight) your favorite creepy killing machine, Hitokage! (Versus some poor, unfortunate fool… Bwahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!))

"I'm safe!" roared Chouji upon the announcement that Lee, not he would be fighting Gaara. The announcement caused Hitokage to cock his head to the side, before returning to his previous location. Whatever he had gone to do, he had finished. "Go get him Lee, my youthful student!" bellowed Gai as he watched his young protégé hop down to where Gaara had transported. Seeing something flying towards him, Lee caught it, holding it up to reveal the stopper of Gaara's gourd. "Please… don't rush things." He said to the stoic sand nin. "All right then, cough, let the eleventh, cough, round began!"

"Konoha senpuu!" Lee cried as he darted forward, aiming his attack for Gaara's head. Before it made contact, a wave of sand gushed out from the gourd on Gaara's back, blocking the kick and blowing around Lee. Lee managed to roll back just in time to avoid being smacked away by the sand as it swept towards him. Zigzagging left and right, Lee positioned himself behind his opponent, only to have his attack once again blocked by a wall of sand. Flipping away from the hands of sand that erupted from the ground, Lee managed to land atop the statue of the tiger seal, a safe distance away.

"Lee! Take them off!" cried Gai to his student. "But, Master! You told me never to do that unless the life of someone precious to me was in danger!" Gai just grinned, showing off his sparkling teeth. "I'll allow its use this once!" After staring at his master and idol for a few moments, Lee began to laugh. He reached down to the orange leg warmers he wore around his legs, and pulled them away, revealing weights underneath. "Right! Now I can move freely!" he yelled as he dropped the weights. As they hit, the innocent looking weights sent up large amounts of debris and left large craters in their wake. "Go!! Lee!! Called his sensei. "Yes sir!"

All at once, Lee seemed to disappear, moving so fast as to be invisible to the naked eye. He reappeared next to Gaara, his punch blocked just before making contact with his foes face. Throwing kicks and punches, he moved around Gaara, before sliding behind him, flipping over, and throwing an axe kick that caught the crown of Gaara's head, leaving a gash down his cheek.

"Now Lee! Explode!" Gai once again called. With a grin, Lee flashed out of existence, reappearing and disappearing so fast that Gaara had no time to follow him. Leaving an after image behind Gaara, he punched him in the face as he turned to attack.

Standing up slowly, Gaara's face began to crumble, revealing it to be a layer of sand. Underneath the sand armor was a maniacal grin and bloodshot eyes.

(I considered stopping here because it would be a good cliff, but I hate them, so onward!)

The sand slowly began creeping over Gaara's body, covering the bits of the sand armor that had broken off, returning his face to the normal glare and frown. 'What an amazing defense! He's covered in armor making my speed irrelevant… the only option is to just hit the outer layer so hard it gives way.' Thought Lee as he cast an inquiring gaze upon his mentor. Upon seeing a confirming nod, Lee smiled. 'The lotus…'

Lee began unwrapping the bandages around his arms, seemingly irritating Gaara. "Come on…" spoke the sand nin for the first time, "Hurry up." "As you wish!" yelled Lee as he materialized under Gaara, sending him flying into the air. Lee jumped up after him, kicking him higher and higher too fast for the eye to perceive, and too fast for the sand to follow.

Flinching at the pain of his own technique, lee quickly mummified Gaara in bandages, rotating at extreme speeds as he plummeted to the ground. With a bang and an inward cry of 'forward lotus' Lee plowed Gaara into the earth.

Leaping away and gasping from excursion, Lee stared at the crater, his eyes widening at what he saw. Gaara's face had collapsed in on itself, revealing his body to be hollow, Gaara's outer shell, the sand armor.

From behind Lee, a laughing Gaara arose from the ground, sending a wave of sand towards his enemy. Lee flew into a wall, barely managing to block the cascade of sand as it impacted his body. Gaara's sand once again charged him, forcing him to roll away from the wall, and to set out in a dead run, avoiding the sand as it attempted to crush him. As he dodged, he remembered the day that Gai-sensei had inspired him to become a taijutsu master.

Yay!!!! First ever **Flashback **

_"Okay, if five hundred consecutive pushups don't make me strong enough, then I'll do one thousand two hundred skips with the jump rope," said Lee aloud as he ran through his training. Unbeknownst to him, his new sensei, Gai, was watching him from behind a nearby tree. "If one thousand two hundred skips don't do it, then I'll just do two thousand kicks on the practice dummy! One thousand one hundred sixteen… one thousand one hundred seventeen…" _

_While he was doing his skips, he failed to jump high enough in time, sending him sprawling headfirst into the wooden dummy. He lay there for a moment before starting to cry, grunting in pain. Seeing this, Gai chose to step out. "So Lee…" he said. "Taking a break already?" Lee stood up and began dusting himself off. "Did you… need anything Gai-sensei? If its about the mistake I made on the last mission, I thought I had made it up to you!" he said without turning to face his sensei, and beginning to kick the practice dummy. _

_"You know…" Gai began slowly, "You really are different then Neji. You have no skill in genjutsu or ninjutsu, nor are you talented in taijutsu. Nevertheless, there is one are that you completely surpass Neji in. You're a genius of another kind." _

_"You're just saying that to be nice," said Lee bitterly. Gai just smiled. "I'm not trying to be nice I'm just saying that you're…" Lee's kicks stopped. "A genius of hard work." Finished Gai." "Do you really mean that?" asked Lee. "I've always believed that if I had faith and trained three times harder than Neji, I'd be able to beat him. But lately… I've lost hope of ever surpassing Neji's genius. I always hope that my hard work will be enough, so I keep challenging him… and keep losing! I don't know what to do…" In the middle of his speech, Lee had begun crying again. "All your hard work will prove useless," said Gai seriously, "unless you believe in yourself!" Lee's eyes widened. _

_Later, the two sat on a rock. "You remind me of me… back when I was a failure as well. But now, I can match up to the genius Kakashi!" said Gai with a smile. "You wan to prove that a person can be a great ninja without the use of ninjutsu or genjutsu, right?" he inquired. "It's a great goal, one worth fighting for. It's the path you chose, so have faith and follow through with it! Become such a great fighter that I can just sit back and watch the show! You got that Lee?" "Yes sir!" shouted Lee with newfound enthusiasm and confidence. _

End flashback 

After remembering that faithful day, Lee sprang away just in time to avoid a wave of sand as it came crashing down where he had once stood. Gaara glared and said, "It ends now" "Well, one way or the other, the next move will be the last," replied Lee as he set himself into a stance and closed his eyes. Slowly, chakra begun swirling around him, breaking off chunks of rock and holding them suspended in mid-air. Veins bulged, skin turned red, and the pupils of Lee's eyes disappeared. 'Now,' Lee thought, 'I finally obtain… my nindo!' "The third gate! Release!" and internally, 'and while I'm at it, fourth gate, release!' Lee began to scream, and blood dripped from his nose as he secreted power at an uncontrolled rate.

Lee burst forward, ripping rock and destroying the entire stadium floor as he raced towards Gaara, kicking him up before anyone even saw him move. As the sand moved to follow its master, Lee flashed before Gaara, sending him flying once again, and again and again, faster than the eye could perceive. In midair, Lee circled Gaara, batting him in all directions and flinging him back in before he had a chance to be thrown away. The protective armor of sand slowly but surely began to crack and flake off, leaving Gaara vulnerable.

Even as his muscles snapped under the strain, Lee leapt above Gaara, and scram, "This is the end!" and released the fifth gate. Lee came crashing down upon the helpless Gaara, slamming into his stomach with such force that the air was ripped and sent out as a shockwave. Wrapping his bandages around Gaara's midriff, Lee allowed him to slam into the ground before yanking him back up only to crush his stomach with a punch-kick combo and a cry of "Reverse lotus!" The demonic sand nin plummeted into the earth, shattering the arena and sending giant chunks up into the sky.

As Lee lay there, weakened and torn apart by his use of the inner gates, sand reached out and grasped the limbs on his left side. Gaara's gourd had expanded into a cushion of sand, saving him from the final blow. Gaara clenched his fist, screaming, 'Sabakukyu!' within his mind. The sand imploded upon Lee's trapped limbs, completely crushing them. As a wave of sand moved in to finish the job, it was dispersed by Gai, who had leapt in to save the life of his student.

Flashes of memory passed through Gaara's mind, and he collapsed to his knees holding his head in pain. "Why are you… helping him," he asked weakly. "He's my lovable, precious protégé. Standing up, Gaara glared at Lee's still body, before reforming the gourd and turning away. "Forget it," he mumbled, walking into the stands. Finally stepping forward, Hayate called out, "The victor, cough, is Gaara!"

Gasps were heard throughout the stadium as Lee, with an arm and leg completely crushed, stood and took a loose fighting stance. "Lee, it's alright, it's over. You're in no shape to be…" Gai's eyes widened in understanding as he stared at his student, and tears began to flow. Lee was unconscious, and still trying to fight.

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(Skipping the Dosu/ Chouji fight because in the manga, its five pages.-- Short.)

"The thirteenth and final match is between Fi-da Kyonshi and Zetsume Hitokage. Will the contestants please step down?" Neko grinned. "Hitokage, it's finally your turn!" He was unresponsive. "Hitokage? Hello? You finally get to fight! Sanshouuo, he's not moving." Standing up, Sanshouuo walked over to stand next to his sister in front of their final teammate. "Hey, Hitokage, you there? What, do you want something?"

Upon hearing this statement, he turned his head to Sanshouuo. "Yes," was all he said, continuing to face him. Sanshouuo looked confused before he looked to his sister and their eyes widened in realization. Slowly, their faces were split by grins before Neko spoke up. "Yes Hitokage… you can have some fun… have all the fun you'd like." She said. With a tip of his hat, Hitokage transported himself to the arena floor in a vortex of shadows.

"About time you got down here," said Hitokage's opponent, a girl with spiky blood-red hair. She wore black leather pants, a sleeveless leather belly shirt and boots. Around her neck, a spiked chocker lay, as well as spiked bracelets and a studded belt. "Your teammates are that cat-bitch and the fire guy, right?" He didn't reply. "They killed my teammate, so I'm going to kill theirs, and then, I'm gonna kill them!" she said. Still no answer. "What? Can't talk? Huh, you must be pretty weak to get hurt enough to be covered in bandages while your team is unscratched. What, have an accident? Get a boo boo?" Again, no answer to her taunts.

"Whatever. Ref, mind starting the fight?" Before Hayate managed to say anything, Neko cried out, "Wait!" Smiling, she threw a kunai, cutting a neat hole where Hitokage's mouth lay. "There you go Hitokage! Bon appetite!" she yelled as she went to stand next to her brother. "What, was that so you could talk?" asked Kyonshi. "No," he said in the same dead tone, but with a guttural sound to it. "It's so I can taste your blood." Kyonshi shivered. Something in that voice…

Hayate cleared his throat. "Final round of the preliminaries, begin!" Before Kyonshi even had a chance to move, a wave of killing intent washed over her, filling the genin with visions of their deaths and even paralyzing the jonin in fear. Hitokage smiled, a harsh smile filled with malice, hate and insanity, showing off curved needle-like teeth, stained red by blood.

Hitokage slowly advanced upon his helpless prey, gently grasping her chin and holding her face up for him to see. "You look delicious," he said with the last word drawn out, and ending with a hiss. "I have a present… for you," he said again, perhaps fitting more words into ten seconds then he did in an entire week.

Quickly, he ran through a series of seals before slamming his hand into the ground and whispering, "Shigai kuchiyose no jutsu." Two plumes of smoke appeared on either side of his hapless victim, clearing to reveal her two dead teammates. "N…Nezumi… Agem…mono?" she stammered in surprise and fear. Her teammates were indeed standing there before her, but they stood as they had died; Agemono's head face had imploded, showing a mass of burns and blood, while Nezumi's body was charred and had two jagged holes in its chest.

"Come join us Kyonshi. Death's not so bad," said Nezumi. 'And," continued Agemono, "neither is being returned to life by Hitokage-shishou. In his summons world, there are hundreds of others to talk to and live with, and you have everything your heart desires." Kyonshi's eyes widened in horror as Hitokage reached forward to once again grasp her chin. "Come. Bend to my will, and serve alongside friends…. For eternity." As he said this, he reached upwards with his free hand, and moved aside the bandages and headband covering his left eye, revealing it to the world.. Where there should be white, there was utter darkness that reflected no light, and the iris was non-existent. All there was in that ebony pool of darkness was a slit pupil, glowing gold.

"Look into my eyes," he hissed menacingly. Against her will, her eyes turned to gaze into his. "Zenrei waikyoku no jutsu," he whispered, and instantly, all Kyonshi knew was pain. It felt as though fire had been thrust into her body, burning her to ash from the inside out, tearing apart her soul, her will, and her sanity. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound could personify the misery she was subject to, no voice could capture the pure agony of having ones soul literally torn apart while still keeping her clinging to life, unable to die, unable to end the pain. And as abruptly as the pain had come, it had stopped. "If you do not join," Hitokage said, Then I will take your life… your soul… and twist it to my will… as I have so many others… you know not what I am.. where I'm from… what I'm capable of…"

As he spoke, the shadows around her rose, transforming into skeletal hands and grotesque twisted heads, beings never before seen on gods green earth. And as one, they grasped her body, and held her as they bit into her flesh, clawing, and tearing as her former teammates moved in, joining in the slow demise of their friend. And finally, Kyonshi's voice managed to capture all of her pain and horror, and transform it into a never-ending symphony of misery and woe, carried from her lips and echoing throughout the bodies and souls of all that heard it.

"STOP!" scam Hayate as he wrenched the girl away from the grasp of darkness. Hayate glared at the man… no… the monstrosity in front of him as he gently lowered the girl to the floor as she trembled and wept. "There has been enough death caused by your team today, hasn't there?" This time, Hitokage remained silent, moving the bandage to cover his eye, and turned to his would-be victim. As soon as her eyes met his form, she scrambled back as quickly as her torn flesh would allow, before standing and running for the door. Hitokage held up a hand.

5.

Kyonshi started out in a dead run, Hayate calling for her to stop, to come back.

4.

The girl had made it halfway, and the medic nin ran after her, calling for her to stop, begging her to come back and get healed.

3.

The jonin and medic nin saw the reason behind Hitokage's count down, and halted their pursuit, still calling out to her, now frantically, to stop, trying to warn her of the danger.

2.

Kyonshi reached the door, still ignoring the cries for her attention in her mad dash to distance herself from her tormentor, desperate to escape her fallen teammates.

1.

Kyonshi turned the corner, and ran faster upon seeing light at the end of the tunnel ahead of her.

0.

KABOOM! An explosion shook the tower, the walls of the hallway beyond the arena being torn apart from the force, blood and gore flying in all directions from the epicenter of the explosion.

As the sound stopped echoing and the debris settled, Hitokage's dead voice reverberated throughout the silent arena. "Oops. Did I not tell hr about the explosive note attached to her back?"

With that said, he calmly walked back up the stairs to once again stand stoically beside his teammates. As he walked, a long, thin, grey tongue snaked out to lick away a drop of blood that had landed upon his cheek. 'Mmmm…' he thought. 'Delicious.'

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**A/N: There it is, the third chapter of Onigakure! You finally got to see my guys in action, and get a look into their personalities. I personally think that the last part with Hitokage was scary, and the ending, superb. Oh, and I may add pairings. I would like to have reader feedback on that, weather or not I should do it and if I do, who. Obviously no San/Neko, their brother and sister, more on that later. Anyway, please, leave a review, **or _**Hitokage will devour your soul!**_** (Not really, but reviewing will inspire me and give me a confidence boost.) **

P.S.: If anyone can tell me the meaning of all my original characters names, they get an entire chapter dedicated to them! (Except Girl at Heart, she'll get it first and has already had a chapter dedicated to her) Use I don't know if it's right because I don't know Japanese, but that's what I used. 

**Jutsu List **

Kyousei ichijin no jutsu: Lightning touch: A jutsu that electrifies the users body and thus anything that they touch.

Doseki kouya no jutsu: Rock field: A jutsu that raises the rock in an area dependent on the users chakra into needles that resemble grass in a field.

Doseki kyanonbo-ru no jutsu: Rock cannon ball: A jutsu that creates a cannon ball sized piece of rock and sends it at a target at high velocity.

Kazangan handou no jutsu: Lava kick: A technique that turns any rock nearby into lava with the heat of the flames generated, and uses it to form a deadly attack.

Shikyaku no jutsu: Down on all fours technique: distributes chakra throughout the users body, making it function like an animals while giving them claws and fangs.

Jujin bunshin: Man beast clones: Transforms the user like Shikyaku no jutsu, but transforms an animal into a clone of the user as well.

Sabakukyu no jutsu: Coffin of crushing sand: Implodes sand wrapped around a victim, crushing them.

Shigai kuchiyose no jutsu: Corpse summoning: Summons the body of a slain foe to act as a minion to the summoner. Zetsume forbidden technique.

Zenrei waikyoku no jutsu: Soul torture: Tortures the soul of the victim, burning it with the fires of hell. Zetsume forbidden technique.


	6. Alliances

**Onigakure**

**A/N: Well, I finally got around to updating! Sorry it's been so long, but life's been not so great :P. Full year of college classes fit into half a year, parent's divorce, etc. Blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I finally got it (thanks to Shining Kitsune reviewing and reminding me that this existed) And I sorta wrote this in a rush to get it done and posted. Wrote it in 3 days . Anyway, I hope you like I, sorta short, but I wanted to post!**

**Speech**

"Yo" speaking.

'Hola' thinking

_Flashbacky!: _Flashback

**Ch. 5: Alliances **

"Winner of the, cough, final match, cough, is Zetsume Hitokage," said Hayate, surveying the carnage left behind by the murderous Oni nin. After the performance that Hitokage had given, the arena had fallen silent as the medical nin cleaned up the blood and gore that had once been Fi-da Kyonshi, as well as the remains of whatever many of the genin had had for lunch.

Once the clean-up crew had left, the winners of the thirteen matches lined up in front of the proctors and the Hokage himself. "To all of you that passed the, cough, preliminaries and advanced to the cough, final exam, congratulations!" exclaimed Hayate, his eyes passing over the genin, though they lingered upon the Oni team. "And now, cough, Lord Hokage, they're all, cough, yours."

Stepping forward slightly, the aged Hokage spoke to the gathered genin. "As of now I shall begin explaining the final exam. These finals will be held in front of those people interested in searching for shinobi to do whatever job they may desire, and each of you is what they will use to judge the strength of your nations. As you will all be representatives of your respective lands, we want you to perform at your best, showcasing all of your techniques and skill. To allow such, the finals will be held in one month."

Naruto gaped. "You mean were not doing it right here, right now?" he asked Sarutobi. Either not hearing or just ignoring Naruto, the Hokage continued. "We call this requisite preparation period."

Seeing the blank stares he was receiving, he chose to elaborate. "You see, this time allows us to relay the results of these preliminaries to the leaders of shinobi lands, and the assorted dignitaries that may wish to attend, and summon them here, to view the finals. It will also allow you all to prepare for the finals.

"I still don't understand. What do you mean," asked the ever so intelligent Kankuro. The Hokage continued his explanation. "Well you see, unlike these preliminaries where you were basically fighting an unknown enemy, in the finals, you will know something about your opponent, something they ended up unintentionally sharing with all of you during their fights. This month long waiting period will allow those injured to heal and those that may have given away their secrets to learn new tricks."

After seeing understanding creep into the eyes of the confused (Cough, NekoNarutoKankuro, cough) Sarutobi decided to end his speech. "Now, before you all go, there is one thing that needs doing…. I need you all to draw lots."

Anko stepped forward, holding a box for them to fish slips of paper out of. Once everyone had proceeded to do so, the Hokage spoke once again. "Now then, I will tell you all the order in which the finals will commence. Many genin gasp. "What," scram Naruto indignantly, "That's what those drawings were for." "Ibiki, if you please?" kindly asked the Hokage, once again managing to 'miss' Naruto's loud shout. With a nod, Ibiki stepped forward and held up a slip of paper with names written under brackets.

Match one: Hyuuga Neji vs. Uzumaki Naruto

Match two: Gaara vs. Uchiha Sasuke.

Match three: Kankuro vs. Aburame Shino.

Match four: Dosu Kinuta vs. Nara Shikamaru.

Match five: Temari vs. Itonami Sanshouuo

Match six: Shussei Neko vs. Zetsume Hitokage

A gasp sounded from Neko's lips as she read whom it was she would be fighting. A quick glance at her 'opponent' revealed that he was as unresponsive as usual. "Now then," the Hokage's voice sounded, cutting through her thoughts. "Are there any questions before you are dismissed?"

Shikamaru raised his hand. "Yea, this is a tournament right? Does that mean that there can only be one person that becomes a chunin?" "No. The results of this tournament will be the direct result of a panel of judges that will decide weather or not you deserve to become a chunin. Based on this, it may be possible for _all _of you to become chunin… or none of you to." After seeing no hands rise into the air, the Hokage said, "Very well, seeing as there are no more questions…. Dismissed!"

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Across Konoha, in a room within an expensive hotel, the Oni team sat quietly. Sanshouuo was looking worriedly at Neko, who was glancing nervously at Hitokage, who in turn was gazing blankly at a wall. The silence was finally broken by Sanshouuo. "You know he can't hurt you. Father won't allow it." Neko glanced up at her brother. "I know that but… what am I supposed to do? Just attack him, knowing that he can't fight back?" Sanshouuo shrugged. "And why not? It's an easy win. Just order him to pretend and fight, then beat him up. What's he going to do, kill us? It's not like he can, not with what father taught us to do to him." Neko gasped. "You wouldn't…. would you?"

Sanshouuo merely smirked. "And why not? In fact, why don't I do it now?" Still smirking, Sanshouuo brought his hands up in a complex seal, only to have his arm grabbed by Neko in the next moment.

"Don't Sanshouuo," demanded Neko seriously. "Why not? He's nothing! He's not even a real shinobi; he's just here as a protector, a guardian a… a … a servant!" By now, Sanshouuo was growling at his sibling, eyes glowing with anger. "Because he doesn't deserve it!" yelled his now equally enraged sister. "Doesn't deserve…" now instead of enraged, Sanshouuo was shocked. "You know what he did, don't you? What that… thing did to the Zetsume family? Why he's father's servant in the first place?" "It wasn't… his… fault!" yelled Neko, her shout met by only silence.

Neko stood there, panting, looking between Sanshouuo and Hitokage, who had remained silent and unmoving during the entire confrontation. Suddenly, a sharp knock sounded from the doorway. Straightening up and dusting herself off, Neko walked to the door and opened it, revealing a Konoha jonin. Without missing a beat, the jonin said, "The Hokage would like to see you all." Glancing back at her brother and seeing him shrug, Neko followed after the jonin as he turned to lead them away, Sanshouuo and Hitokage close behind her.

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The Hokage looked over the silent Oni team as they sat in front of him. After being brought to the Hokage's office, the three sat down in the offered seats and remained silent, waiting for him to say something. Finally, he spoke. "I had heard of your rather…. unorthodox entrance. Threatening a guard won't escape the eyes of the Hokage for long, you know." Neko blushed and Sanshouuo had the decency to look embarrassed. Do I really need to say what Hitokage looks like in these situations anymore?

"However" continued the Hokage, "I decided to let you stay after it was ascertained that you meant no harm, though your recent… performance at the preliminaries has led me to bring you here today. Now, where are you from, and what are you doing here in Konoha?"

The question was asked innocently enough, but it had an undertone that gave off the feeling that he wanted no funny business. Clearing his throat, Sanshouuo spoke. "Well, as we told that guard, were from Onigakure, the village hidden by the demons. And we are here to participate in the chunin exam and show off our strength to the shinobi nations."

The Hokage's eyebrows rose at this announcement. "Onigakure…" he said, clearly not convinced. His kind face swiftly turned stern. "That village is only a legend. Now, tell me where you are from and what your purpose is here. Answer truthfully, or I'm afraid more drastic measures must be taken.

"But we _are _from Onigakure! We _are _Oni nin, and we _are_ here to take the chunin exams!" spat out Neko in a rush, desperate to convince him.

The Hokage sighed. "I didn't want to do this, especially to ones so young, but you leave me little choice. There is a possibility that this is a threat to the safety of my village, and must be taken seriously. Ibiki." Hearing his name, the head of the interrogation stepped forward from his place in the shadows. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" Neko scram. "Please, give us a chance to prove it to you!" "And how do we do that, oh dear sister of mine." Said Sanshouuo, the sarcasm dripping from his voice. Neko glared at the lazy Oni nin. "You're not helping Sanshouuo!" she hissed quietly before turning back to the Hokage.

"Well… uh… yea…." She stuttered. "H… how would I go about proving that were from Onigakure?"

"Well," spoke the professor, deciding to humor them, "I suppose that Onigakure, as a ninja village, would have a leader, correct?" Seeing nods, the Hokage continued. "Well, if I could meet this leader and speak with him, perhaps he could provide me with the proof to prove the existence of your village."

Near instantaneously, Neko snapped up straight ad beamed. "Is that all?" she said bubbly, "I can get him here now!" Still smiling, she reached to one of her daggers and pulled off the end, pulling out a thin scroll. Unrolling it, she bit her thumb and ran the bleeding appendage across the writing on the scroll.

Immediately after, smoke began pouring from the paper, and Neko tossed it into the center of a room. When a column of smoke had formed, a soft pop the outline of a man appeared in the smoke. As it cleared, it revealed a tall man wrapped in pitch-black robes, the hem stitched with blue flames. On top of his head rested a diamond shaped kage hat, with the kanji for demon on the front. His eyes, which were bright green, stared curiously at the aged Hokage in front of him, as he emitted a slight 'hmm' from beneath his metallic facemask.

Looking around, the tall figure spotted the Oni nin behind him. "Oh." He stated simply. Neko smiled and launched herself from her seat, embracing the man in a hug. "Hi daddy!" she yelled excitedly. The man's eyes crinkled as if he were smiling, and he returned her hug. "Hello sweetheart. Mind telling me why you summoned me here?" "We need you to explain to the old man that we _are_ from Onigakure, and convince him that it exists," came the drawling voice of Sanshouuo.

An eyebrow raised, the Onikage turned to face his Konoha counterpart. "Well… what do you want to know?" The Hokage, momentarily stunned at the appearance of a Kage in his secure office, coughed. "Well, um, I don't suppose that you have any proof that you come from a village from legend that is supposedly inhabited by demons?"

The Onikage merely chuckled. "Well, before that, why not introduce ourselves? I am Itonami Fushigi, leader of Onigakure." He introduced, which Sarutobi returned in kind. He extended a hand, which the Hokage shook with a slight smile. "And as too your proof…" Running through a series of one-handed seals, he slammed his palm onto the desk. In a puff of smoke, a tiny humanoid creature appeared. It had curving horns, with tiny glowing eyes and large grinning mouth filled with sharp, serrated teeth. The arms were long and lanky, with three-fingers tipped with sharp claws. The legs were bent back like that of a dog's, and were ended by hooves, around which green flames danced just above the surface of the desk.

"This," started Fushigi, "is a jaki. It's the lowest form of Oni in our village, and is normally used for menial tasks." As the words left his mouth, however, the jaki spotted the young Oni nin behind its master, and flung itself through the air towards Sanshouuo. Just before it reached his rather shocked face, a bandaged hand snapped out and grabbed the jaki by the scruff of its neck.

Hitokage slowly withdrew his hand and dangled the jaki in front of his face by its horn, while the tiny demon attempted to maul his hand with its sharp teeth. Guttural words erupted from Hitokage's mouth. The jaki cocked its head and stopped, as though listening, before a similar series of peeps and squawks came from its tiny maw. Seemingly satisfied, Hitokage placed the jaki on his shoulder, and nodded to the Onikage.

"They can also be used as small personal guards, however." The Hokage turned to look at the man sitting in front of him with wide eyes, his mouth in the process of catching a fly. The Onikage chuckled. "I'll take it that I've convinced you?" The Hokage nodded, and closed his gaping mouth. "Yes… though if what you say is true, and you are from the legendary village of Onigakure, why have you come to this chunin exam? If one believes legends, your village ahs survived since before the creation of the 5 great ninja nations. Why come out now?"

Fushigi sighed and clasped his hands in front of him. "As a fellow leader, I'm sure you must worry for the safety of your home and nation, correct?" Upon receiving a nod, he continued. "Well, think of this as a way to insure the safety of my village. The five great nations are always fighting; fighting for land, fighting for power, fighting for money. It was only a matter of time before some village stumbled upon our home, and declared war to take our strength and land for themselves. I'd much rather have Onigakure prepared, and with allies than alone and caught unawares."

"I see… and you hope to have Konoha as your ally, I suppose?" The Hokage's normal kindly expression was back in place, and he smiled towards Fushigi. "Well, yes, yes I would. I believe in the end it will benefit both of our villages. Onigakure will gain a powerful ally that will discourage many of the larger nations and nearly all of the smaller nations from attacking, and Konoha will gain a powerful army to add to their forces, not far from their borders." At this, the Onikage smiled slyly. "However, the location of our village will remain secret… at least until we know that we can trust you."

Sarutobi nodded slowly, digesting the facts placed before him. "Hmm… very well, you've convinced me. We'll have to wait for the paper work, and I'll need to make a public announcement, but on my word as Hokage, Konoha is, from this day forth, allies with Onigakure."

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Back at the Oni teams hotel room, Neko sat nervously twiddling her thumbs. She sighed and laid back on her bed, all the while thinking about a certain tall, dark and creepy Oni nin. 'I don't know what to do… I know that it's wrong to fight Hitokage when he can't fight back… but at the same time, if he _does_ fight back, then _I'll _get hurt. Maybe killed!' Neko chewed on her lower lip, turning her gaze to the silent form of Hitokage as he stood rigidly by the doorway, watching over his charges. 'He's so… different then he used to be…' "Are you still thinking about fighting Hitokage?" Startled, Neko turned to the bed beside her own to stare at Sanshouuo. "And what if I am?" she asked haughtily. "I've already told you, forget about it. If you don't want too fight him, just give him an order to forfeit. He's not a ninja. He's a servant to our father, and through him, us."

"Yea but… when we were little…" Suddenly, Sanshouuo shot up, glaring at his younger sister. "I don't believe you! I mean, how naïve can one girl get!" "Wh…" Neko started, but was cut off by her brother. "It was a _lie._ He was ordered to take care of us, to be kind, so he was. The moment he became just a bodyguard, his real self came out. That's the real Hitokage, not the one we used to know. Learn to deal with it and move on." That said, Sanshouuo grabbed his sword from beside his bed and walked out the door.

"But…" Neko started before she fell silent and looked to the ground. Sighing, she walked over to her dresser, changed into a loose night shirt/ pants, and crawled into her bed.

Hitokage slowly moved his head to face the sleeping Shussei, his head cocked to the side. He stood up straighter, placing his hands where they could easily grab his weapons to defend the daughter of his master.

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_Flashback/ Dream_

_"Neko, Sanshouuo, I'd like you to meet Hitokage. He'll be taking care of you while I handle my new duties as Onikage. Okay? A seemingly younger version of Itonami Fushigi stood over two small children, his robes looking much newer, and his mouth uncovered, revealing sharp teeth in a smiling mouth. Beside him stood Hitokage, though he looked… different, to say the least. Though he was still covered completely in bandages, the black trench coat he wore was devoid of holes or tears of any sort. His dress pants appeared to be brand new, his boots clean and shining. The hat upon his head was sleeker, but otherwise appeared unchanged. Perhaps the strangest things, however, was that the bandages around his mouth were parted, revealing his mouth and he was… smiling?_

_"Hello." He said, crouching down to be face to face with the children. His voice was deep, and slightly bored sounding but lacked the dead tone it carried before. "As your father said, my name is Hitokage, and I'll be taking care of you. What are your names?" _

_Before him stood two children, one a girl, and one a boy, both looking to be around five years old. The boy stepped forward, trying to look brave, and said "I'm Sanshouuo, and I don't need anyone to take care of me. I can take care of myself and my sister." He wore a red shirt, covered in dirt, and dark blue pants, his glare blocked by long orange-red hair._

_"Is that so? Well then, just consider me extra protection, okay?" After a moment, little Sanshouuo nodded, looking proud that he had proven he was the 'boss'. _

_Hitokage turned his head to gaze at the girl, before he smiled. "And what's your name?" _

_The little girl had her blood red hair tied into two pigtails, and she wore a yellow and black dress. She clung tightly to a small kitten in her arms, the tiny orange creature struggling to breath as she brought it closer in fear of the man in front of her. "N…N…Neko…" She finally managed to say, looking shyly at the ground. Hitokage chuckled. "Well Neko, why don't you let the kitten breath?" The five-year-old gasped and blushed, relaxing her hold on the tiny orange kitten. Hitokage smiled and placed his hand gently on her head. "Don't be afraid. As long as I'm here, nothing bad is going to happen to you, ok?" Neko glanced up and beamed. "Ok!" _

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Neko awoke abruptly from her slumber, a moan ripping from her throat when she realized that it had been a dream. Her golden eyes quickly adjusted to the surrounding darkness, taking stock of her surroundings. '4:37… I woke up early today… sigh, and from such a nice memory too… Sanshouuo still asleep… and Hitokage's still guarding the do… wait, where is he?' Indeed, Hitokage wasn't standing at his post by the door. 'Where… oh.' Her thoughts were interrupted as she spotted the object of her search, sitting at the foot of her bed. Hitokage sat facing the door, his scythe leaning against his shoulder and his head slumped down.

"Hitokage?" Neko's voice came out as barely a whisper, trying hard not to wake her brother lest he ruin any _chance_ of a moment. "Hitokage, are you asleep?" she asked, a little louder. She slowly slipped out from beneath her covers and edged towards the figure on her bed. When she was directly behind him, Neko paused, unsure as to what to do. After a moment of thought, she poked the back of Hitokage's head. "Hitokage, are yo…" "No." Blushing an interesting shade of scarlet, she brought her hand back and clutched it to her chest.

Slowly, Hitokage turned his head so it faced her, the large eye of his Oni forehead protector staring at her. "Yes Neko-hime?" "Well, um… are you… are you worried about, you know…. The chunin exams?" He remained facing her, before his head slowly rolled to the side. Briskly he said, "There is no need. I am neither a shinobi of Onigakure nor your opponent. I am a servant. I am to lose so that you may go on." All said in as emotionless a voice as humanly (or perhaps inhumanly) possible.

"Um… Hitokage?" He nodded slowly. "If… if you could, would you… hurt me?" The room remained silent. "Oh…" she said sadly, her eyes looking to the ground.

Just as she was about to apologize for bothering him, Hitokage moved. Surprised, Neko looked up with wide eyes to see that he had turned around completely. You could her him open his mouth, the sharp, needle like teeth that filled it clinking together and…

"Would you two shut up?" So much for that. Sanshouuo sat up, glancing in-between Hitokage, his hand lifted as if to pat Neko's head, and Neko herself, who appeared to be trying to burn a hole through his head with her eyes. "Um…did I miss something?" Sanshouuo said dully, wondering if he were still dreaming. "Sanshouuo…." Came Neko's voce sickly sweet voice. The fire-haired teen gulped. 'Oh god…' "Ye…yes?" he said weakly. "Can I see you outside for a minute? Just a minute. Hitokage, you better stay here. I'll take care of him… I mean, we'll take care of ourselves." The sickly sweet voice and the overly large smile that practically engulfed her face made Sanshouuo ill to even think about. "Well, um..." Before he could form his protests, Neko leaped up and dragged him from the room by the arm.

Hitokage stood there frozen, his arm poised as if resting on top of the head of a little girl. And for the first time in years, he was back to when his charges had not been key shinobi he was meant to protect, but children he was to watch over and care for.

His memories were cut short as he heard a shrill, woman like scream echo from outside the hotel. He placed his scythe on his back. He donned his top hat. And he got ready to take Sanshouuo to the nearest hospital, knowing full well he would need it.

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Sanshouuo, Neko, and Hitokage stood waiting patiently before the Onikage as looked through a clipboard of paper work. Neko was smiling innocently and rocking back and forth on her heels idly playing with a kunai, Hitokage stood rigid, and Sanshouuo… Sanshouuo was struggling to keep himself from collapsing from the pain he felt in every fiber of his being.

"Well… as you know, were allies with Konoha know." Receiving a yes, a nod, and a grunt, he continued. "Well, as allies, we have shared the knowledge of the basic structure of Onigakure, the clans, and what resources we have, and in return, have received the same information. However, something extra has just turned up. It is suspected by the Hokage and many of his shinobi that an attack upon this village will take place during the chunin exam finals."

Silence. After a few moments of awkwardness, the Onikage seemed to be embarrassed. "Yes… well… um…" "That was it?" asked Neko. "Um…yes?" said her father. Fushigi scratched the back of his head. "You mean… you aren't surprised?" "Nope." "I don't see… why..ow.. we should care…" Came the pained voice of Sanshouuo. A grinning Neko turned to face the Onikage. "So, what's it matter? What are we going to do about it?" The Onikage lowered his hand and returned to an air of seriousness. "I've decided to bring in some our forces to help protect this village, and prove our loyalty." Neko raised an eyebrow. "And? I know there's more. So c'mon, tell us!" "Well…" he began, glancing worriedly at Neko. "One of them will be Shikima."

Neko gasped and dropped the kunai she had been playing with, before an enraged look spread across her face. Sanshouuo slowly had a grin and a blush appear, before he fainted dead away. And Hitokage was too surprised to bother to catch him.

**A/N: Well, there it is, the fifth chapter! Um, yea, mildly short, but again, I wanted to post it. I'll make the next chapter longer. PLEASE R&R, or I forget about it and don't get motivated .. Send me ideas, thoughts, pairings you want, characters you want (I'll be bringing back the Naruto characters, its mostly been mine) and if you want, gimme some original characters that fit the 3 clans and I'll put em in my story! Honestly, open to all input, ideals, characters, wants, etc. So, again, R&R! OR HITOKAGE WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOUL!!!!!!!! (jk…or am I? Oo) **


	7. A Notice: PLEASE READ THOUGH!

Ok, well, as some may know, I haven't updated in quite a bit. Yea. So, I went back and fixed some stuff in the chapters, some changes big, some small. So, I would like to get some feed back from those that read the story, and any ideas/ questions/requests they may have about what goes into the stories.

For example, you can offer advice, ask me to do certain pairings, ask me to do a little something in the story for you (such as a few side story chapters should you want some history or funny stuff to read in-between updates. I can get those done fast) and perhaps any designs for Oni characters you want me to throw into the story (I'm having another team or two of Oni nin coming to help out Konoha, and they don't have looks yet, so if you want something you made in the story, here is definitely your chance!

Ok, that's all for now, I just felt I should get that out there and let you all know that I want readers to get involved and get what they want from reading this and to help poor little me out!


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